A Victorian Teahouse Thrives in Rome

In the Victorian era, a rite of passage for wealthy Britons was a grand tour of Europe, where young people could soak up the splendors of the classical world, read romantic poets, and sample gustatory delights unlike anything back home. But a decent cup of tea? On her tour, Isabel Cargill discovered that the brew in Italy—where it was considered a medication and sold in pharmacies—wasn’t up to snuff. So in 1893, she and a friend, Anna Maria Babington, packed their steamer trunks with hats, dresses, and crates of tea and embarked for Rome to fix that problem.

Fast forward 125 years, and while it’s easy to find a cuppa at cafes across Italy, Babingtons Tea Room is still serving up pot after pot at the bottom of the Spanish Steps. The founders “were quite brave, very modern, and independent to dash off to a foreign country where they knew nobody,” says Chiara Bedini, who runs the teahouse with her cousin Rory Bruce, both of them among Cargill’s 13 great-grandchildren. “Isabel was abandoned at the altar in England,” Bedini says, “but she built a new life here.”