The Life of Coffee in Italy

Italians drink coffee from the morning, eat a Croissant, plus a cup of coffee, is breakfast, until 01:00 or even 02:00 in the afternoon, most restaurants do not open until 01:00 for lunch, and guests will not come to dinner until after two o'clock in the afternoon. After lunch, afternoon tea begins. No matter it is sunny or rainy, there are many tables outside, and we chat while drinking coffee.

Chat is the favorite of Italians, often see small groups, standing in the street chatting. Once in Florence, nearly a hundred people stood outside a bar at more than ten o'clock in the evening. I thought there was a conflict. I leaned over to ask about the situation, only to find that there was nothing wrong. Everyone had a glass of wine in their hands, both men and women. It was because there were no seats in the bar and it was crowded, so they all stood outside.

Coffee is extremely fastidious. American coffee has no market in Italy. American coffee is a large cup. Espresso, the most famous coffee in Italy, is pure coffee without milk. Many Italians drink it without sugar, but the most important feature is that each cup is a little bit, and you can drink it all in one sip. Maybe when you see this kind of coffee in China, many people will say, just a little bit! We Chinese economic account, 1 euro is equivalent to 8 yuan, just one sip, drink clean, how not worth ah! If you have to drink coffee, it's not as big as American coffee. That's probably why Starbucks takes root in China.

But Italy likes it. I often see old people standing at the counter of a coffee shop, ordering a cup like this. Standing up and drinking it is not the same as sitting down. This way of drinking reminds me of Beijing drinking big bowls of tea in summer. The difference is that one cup is small and the other bowl is big. Ness-presso is a shop that buys coffee and coffee machines. This store is like a chain store. Every time I see a lot of people inside, everyone is quietly standing in a different place waiting for something. When I take a closer look, everyone has a number in his hand. According to the number, everyone walks to the counter in an orderly manner and patiently waits to buy his favorite coffee. In coffee shops, in bars, on the road, there are chatters everywhere, a collection of phantom shadows with or without strong sunlight.

Italy is now facing serious economic problems, and the economic index continues to hit an all-time low, but we can still see women walking gracefully down the road with LV bags and mink coats, especially older women, even those in their seventies and eighties, who wear silk stockings and shoes with low heels and heavy makeup in the cold winter. The elegance of Italian old people has attracted worldwide attention.

Once, in a coffee shop, I saw an old woman sitting gracefully opposite a man, wearing a black veiled hat. Heavy makeup, but gracefully drank coffee and chatted with him, the next afternoon, the same seats, the two still appeared on the stage. Most Chinese will say that Italian men are handsome and romantic. In the days when I lived in Italy, I had no feeling for Italian romance, handsome was not described as exaggerated, and it was more about being thin and tall.

I often wonder that their dinner starts from eight to 08:30 in the evening, and they usually eat a few courses (maybe it will be easier to eat at home), at least a few courses in the family gatherings I attend. Often when the third course is served, it is already full, but then there is a huge steak.

We don't know what to do with it. If we eat it, we'll worry that we won't be able to sleep all night. I am even more worried about how fat people will become after eating. What's even weirder is that our worries never show up with the Italians: the European version is mostly slim, perhaps because they like sunshine and olive oil?