One of the most interesting aspects of researching our book The Last Voyage of the Andrea Doria: The Sinking of the World’s Most Glamorous Ship, were the glimpses we got into the daily life and culture of the 1950s. Of course, a liner like the Andrea Doria would have been a microcosm of all that was best and most enjoyable about life at the time; and as eating well and dining in beautiful surroundings have always been part of the pleasure of being alive, we were especially interested in the array of menus we found.
The menu covers were themselves works of art, showing mostly watercolors of flowers indigenous to Italy, including the Edelweiss, perhaps the best-known of Alpine blooms. In a couple of cases, though, the menu bore a cover showing an undersea landscape of colorful fish, ribbon seaweed and starfish. The selection of this art for the menu covers continued both the maritime and Italian themes of the ship itself.
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