Serbia wrote:Never been to Key West. In fact, I've spent less than 24 hours in Florida, all of them in Miami, which is a shame. At least I got to go to the beach.
Key West is an interesting place. It was even more interesting in Hemingway's time when he had to stay a few days because he had ordered a car in Key West and decided to stay there for a significant portion of his life. Key West and Cuba really form the backbone of his attitude. At his house, he had his writing space on the second floor of a garage next to the main house. There was no staircase, but a swing bridge from his bedroom window to the second floor room.
Hemingway liked a very very dry martini that was very very cold (although he didn't dislike vermouth, just not wen drinking the martini). And he never drank while he wrote.
When asked in an interview if rumors of him taking a pitcher of martinis to work every morning were true, he answered, “Jeezus Christ! Have you ever heard of anyone who drank while he worked? You’re thinking of Faulkner. He does sometimes – and I can tell right in the middle of a page when he’s had his first one. Besides, who in hell would mix more than one martini at a time?”