Lion's Bar Review

Diagonally opposite the Excelsior on Lungomare Guglielmo Marconi, the Lion's is a favourite resort of journalists and photographers during the Film Festival. The façade of the corner entrance is an elaborate affair, designed by Giovanni Sicher in the 1920s, featuring a vast sky-blue and gold sunburst demilune. I visited the Lion's out of season one early evening. There was nobody about but a dazed-looking barefoot blonde, possibly the ghost of a Fellini extra, swaying slowly back and forth in the inner room under a massive glitterball. The bar is as much frequented by arty types as by journalists, and the Felliniesque danseuse is a fair indication of the agreeable, if somewhat eccentric, atmosphere one might encounter here. Great fun.