A handover between local entrepreneurs, and the story that continues, with red sunsets and the city underfoot; with spritzes raised above the roofs of Stampace and the same staff .

"It was one of the agreements, because the soul of this place is you customers and also the staff", says with conviction Danilo Argiolas, founder and owner of the Libarium, until yesterday. Observing the panorama that is part of the history: his and of the place overlooking Cagliari. At the table, next to Luca Sanna and Andrea Branca, who with two other partners from today will write the new pages of a history that seller and buyers assure will be the same.

No mention of the price ("I don't think the city cares about this") and no nostalgia, Danilo assures . "I swore to myself to give myself another chance, to take off my second surname Libarium and see what I'm capable of. I'm definitely not retiring and thank goodness they're not closing the door on me", he jokes, confirming the news that has been circulating for some time.

"Here I leave a twenty-year-old, memories and anecdotes. But it is not an end nor a new beginning, simply the story continues". The one born in 1993, in via Stretta, and then advanced a few meters, in via Santa Croce, in '96.

"It was my second entrepreneurial experience, the first was a total failure, I tried again and it was a wonderful journey, made of a thousand loves, sufferings, experiences and characters", he says. "I grew up with this place and with the city".

And there are also many memories, nestled there, between the tables where today he is a special customer : «Litfiba broke up here, Tullio De Piscopo left at 5 in the morning with a pot, the president of the Balearic Islands... it's easier to list who was not our guest». And then Carlotto and the Alligator, Danilo's cocktail that wrote the page of another story.

From customers to owners, with a negotiation that began a year ago, with a chat, a handshake and no written documents . How it works between gentlemen, and the newcomers certainly are, as is Danilo. "We are entrepreneurs but when there is money involved the auctions start in two minutes: he was very correct, we had established a figure and that was it", Luca and Andrea are keen to point out. "Just as together we decided to keep the staff and leave the place unchanged, because this place doesn't need upheavals, it's magical like this. Among other things, we don't like being in the spotlight, if it were up to us the news wouldn't even have come out".

Because discretion is perhaps one of the secrets to being successful and expanding a company that adds the Libarium to many other successful businesses: the Paillotte, Corso Dodici, Civico 8, the Ex Tipografia, Saudade, the Pescheria Bianchi, Vittorino, the management of the pizzeria at Phi Beach and soon also the Emerson.

Sarah Marci

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