On a recent holiday in Tuscany, my wife took a photo of me each time I had an Espresso in a different location. The holiday was superb and the Espresso too – so it got me thinking about Italy and its love of coffee…..
Drinking coffee in Italy is an art and no more so
than in the beautiful central region of Tuscany, covering an area of about
23,000 square kilometres.
When the first European coffee house opened in
Venice in 1683 it served its coffee strong and short. Five centuries later and not a lot has
changed in Italy. Espresso is still the
coffee du jour or twice, 3 times or 4 times du jour!
Italian coffee isn’t like coffee anywhere else in
the world. There are two important things to remember, the first is that
‘Italian’ expressions and phrases used in coffee shops outside of Italy either
mean something very different or nothing at all! Secondly, coffees are mainly served in a
‘bar’ and are what we call a ‘café’.
Most Italians drink coffee standing up at the bar
and the prices are significantly less at the bar compared to if you drink the
same cup sitting at a table. As you will
see from the photos - I enjoyed my
Espressos sitting down! The Espresso
comes without sugar, but cremina can be added which is foam whipped with sugar
In Italy people drink an Espresso before they do
anything else in the morning. In the
cities – life is so busy that people drink their Espresso without anything else
for breakfast. It then continues throughout the day – Coffee is a very social
thing in Italy.
The Italian coffee tasted great each time I had
one, and even better when surrounded by the fantastic views of Tuscany.
No comments:
Post a Comment