Latte macchiatoĬaffè corretto – an espresso with the addition of a shot of alcohol, usually grappa or sambuca.Ĭaffè ristretto – an espresso made with less water so that it really packs a caffeine punch.Īmericano – an espresso which has been diluted with hot water. However there are many different types of coffee you could go for, if you know the names. If you ask for a caffè you will get an espresso. The ‘e’ on the end is pronounced open like the ‘e’ in ‘get’ and not closed like the ‘ay’ in ‘play’. Italians have a very sweet tooth and many think people like me, who drink their coffee without sugar, are a bit weird. Somewhere on the bar will also be the sugar. In the north of Italy you will often get a choice of still or sparkling. In a bar, coffee is often served with a small glass of water. If you are in Naples, you might choose a sfogliatella which is a local delicacy, or in Sicily, a cannolo. This will depend where you are in Italy, but a brioche (a kind of sweet croissant), a cornetto (an alternative name for the same thing), or a bombolone (doughnut) are found everywhere. If you are drinking your coffee for breakfast, it’s usual to eat something with it. At the beginning of 2018, the average price for an espresso in Rome was €1.03. Currently, you’d expect to pay between €1 and €1.10 for an espresso and €1.20–€1.30 for a coffee with milk. Priceĭemand for coffee has kept prices low. When arriving for a business, or hair appointment, it’s very usual to be offered a coffee (with the assistant often running out to the bar next door to get it). Running into a friend in the street, often results in you taking them to a nearby bar to continue your conversation over a coffee. There are unwritten rules about when you can drink what kind of coffee (milky coffee strictly before 11am, for instance). Everyone has their own, slightly different way of taking it which is as personal as their signatures. Italy has a strong, and sometimes ritualistic, culture surrounding coffee. People also drink coffee at home, 87% of households using a moka, the metal stovetop coffee maker, again for breakfast, or when friends call, or after dinner. Torrefazione Cannaregio, my favourite coffee shop in Venice. A restaurant meal is usually finished with coffee. And they don’t have qualms about drinking it in the evening. It’s estimated that almost a quarter of Italians drink more than three cups a day. People will pop back to the bar, or a different bar, several times a day. At breakfast time the plentiful bars are full of people popping in for their morning shot, a quick read of the paper, and a brief hello to friends. Those who have visited any Italian town know that it’s a place where you literally wake up and smell the coffee. The story goes that he took one sip and then said, ‘something this delicious shouldn’t only be available to the infidels.’ The rest is history. Pressed to do something, Pope Clement VIII agreed to try it. Some priests felt that it shouldn’t be allowed since it came from the Muslim East and others that it should be banned because of its qualities as a stimulant. In the rest of Italy, coffee met some resistance from the Catholic Church. Café Florian in the Piazza San Marco has been serving coffee to Venetians since 1720. The number of shops grew so that by the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797 there were more than 200 cafés in Venice, including the famous Florian (1720), Lavena (1750), and I Quadri (1775), all of which are all still open for business. In 1716, the first café opened and the drink became available to the public at large. At first, it was only available to the rich and was sold through pharmacies. It was brought there from the East by Prospero Alpino, a doctor from Padua. It is so synonymous with Italy that even American coffee chains, whose coffee has little resemblance to the Italian variety, use Italian sounding words even for the size of their cups (cups which are much larger than anything you find in Italy).Ĭoffee first appeared in Italy in 1570 in Venice. A recent survey showed that 97% of Italians drink coffee (or caffè) at least once a day. It’s no secret that Italians love their coffee.
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