Italian coffee addiction

As a lot of you might know, I was used not to drink coffee at all before I came to Italy being absolute supporter of tea. Less then 1 month was needed for me to understand that Italians are blissfully ignorant of the delights of fine tea and a bit less then a year for me to start drinking at least some kind of coffee. My new addiciton is cappucino. and I was just about to post about it, but then changed my mind and decided to use this opportunity to share more about Italian coffee addiction!

When food is the heart of life in Italy, then coffee might easily be its soul. Coffee is the proper round-up for any proper meal, the centre of any proper breakfast. In the European countries that miss their own coffee culture the merry-go-round of different kinds of coffee is often reduced for reasons of simplicity, dividing coffee into "normal/black", "with milk" and "latte" (large milk with coffee), leaving the fancy titles of Turkish coffee, espresso, latte macchiato and other such for the few knowledgeable ones. Or the show-offs.

So the post is for those, who ever wondered what is the difference between espresso, latte macchiato, caffe macchiato, macchiatone and other fancy words and tastes...:)

Caffè normale - this is what you get when you walk into a bar and ask for a coffee. Also called caffè liscio (straight coffee) or espresso. You enter a bar, say: "Un caffè, per favore". The bar-keeper will ask: "Liscio?" ("Straight?"). This is your last way out of ordering a coffee with some quantity of milk, because you can either say: "Sì" (yes, I want an espresso) or specify any of the milk-coffee versions listed below.Espresso is not only a tiny cup of very strong coffee. It's made in a specific way: the water is heated up to the point of evapourating in the machine and pressed through the fine powder. Contact with cold air makes the vapour liquify again. This is espresso. All other Italian coffee types are based on espresso (unlike the French coffee that is based on strong filter coffee that has a different production process). Espresso is rarely good outside of Italy, but even in Italy the taste is not the same. It's simple: the quality of the espresso depends on the amount of coffees made each day. The more, the better. For this reason the best coffee is often found in railway station bars and not in isolated mountain restaurants.

Espresso is ok to order at any time of the day, though not too usual right before a meal. In the mornings most people order coffee with milk, such as:

Caffè macchiato is espresso with a little bit of milk. It's still a very tiny cup of coffee for those who don't have time to lose over their coffee but don't want to drink it black either. The added milk can either be cold (caffè macchiato freddo) or hot (caffè macchiato caldo or just macchiato caldo).

Macchiatone is a bigger version of caffè macchiato for those who want to enjoy some more milk foam, but don't want to get a full cappuccino.

Cappuccino (also called cappuccio for short) is served in a cup about the size of a "usual" (Nordic) coffee and is espresso buried in milk foam. This is the ideal morning coffee as it's easy on the stomach and very delicious together with a nice brioche. But - attention! - cappuccino is only a morning coffee. Having it at any time after 11:00 in the morning will automatically shout of being a foreigner who is not initiated into the Italian ways. The exception can be made if you happen to be an elderly lady and it's a very cold day. The worst that one can do is order cappuccino after a meal. This will make everyone from the waitress to the dish-washer snigger under their breath. Why? Well, having coffee after a meal has a stimulating effect on the digestion that doesn't really work if the coffee is served with a significant amount of milk. It doesn't make sense to add hot milk on top of a full stomach. Exceptions are made for caffè macchiato, however - that's a way out for those who don't like black coffee. However, I don't care and ask for cappucino at any point of time:

Latte macchiato is not the same as caffè macchiato. As the latter literally means "marked coffee", then latte macchiato is, obviously, "marked milk" - hot milk with a little (half a cup of) espresso. This is not a usual drink for Italians to have in a bar, though at home this can be quite common. A cup of hot milk is a morning classic**; variations include milk with cocoa powder and milk with coffee.

That's more or less it with the milk. Any of these can also be served with some cocoa on request (this produces even more different names). What comes to coffee itself, there are a number of variations:

Caffè americano - yes! this is it! That's what you need to ask for if you are a tourist in Italy and happen to have had enough of the world-class espresso and would just like to enjoy a cup of "normal" coffee like at home. Only that it will not be coffee like at home. As the only way of making coffee that the Italians recognise is the espresso-method, your caffè americano will just be espresso with added hot water. Sounds disgusting.

Caffè ristretto is a double-strength, half-size espresso for strong men who aren't afraid of a challenge.

Caffè lungo is a 1,5 size espresso. This is what the Portuguese should ask for while in Italy (an Italian espresso is about 2/3 the size of a usual Portuguese coffee).Caffè doppio is a double-size espresso and will most likely be served in a cappuccino-cup so that the espresso looks sad and lonely at the bottom.

Caffè shakerato is espresso with ice, well shaked. Perfect on a hot day.

Well, that's briefly the end of my experience with Italian coffee and what I found in internet, you don't think that I knew all that details myself, don't you?:)

Languages in Italy

Wanted to post this long time ago. But maybe since I'm very nostalgic about leaving Italy soon, I finally found time for that:)

What always amazed me a lot about Italy are the differences between different cities and regions. One of the most explicit manifestations of it (of course after typical food):) are languages or dialects. Each region has its own dialect which sometimes is very different from standard Italian. My Italian is not yet (and most probably will never be) good enough to understand differences between all the dialects, but in a way I can distinguish couple of main ones. My lovely team mates keep on saying that I speak Italian with Napoletan accent, which I totally refuse to believe:)

Apart from 12 minority languages that are officially recognized (Albanian, Catalan, Croatian, Franco-Provencal, French, Friulian, German, Greek, Ladin, Occitan, Sardinian, and Slovene). Note that Catalan, Friulian, Ladin, Occitan and Sardinian are already officially recognized, there are are a lot of others that are not officially recognized by Italian government, but are recognized by other international organizations.... "Of these languages, many have been recognised by international bodies , most notably by UNESCO as reported in the Red Book of Endangered Languages. These are: Emiliano-Romagnolo, Ligurian, Lombard, Neapoletan, Piedmontese, Sicilian, and Venetian"

Anyways, have a look at the map below to see all variety of Italian dialects:)

So are you still sure that you want to learn Italian?:)

Food Mania

A random observation, clearly noticed it only couple of days ago! Actually it's quite funny!

How do you think what is the first thing that Italians will ask you after you stayed at somebody's place (no matter whose - friend, boyfriend, randome mate)? It'll not be related to who lives in the house, where it's situated, how many rooms there are etc.

The question is "Ma si mangia bene a casa di...?" = Did you eat well in that house?

Apparently by this they can judge everything else what might have happened to you there:)

And it's very common here to hear after "how are you" question "what did you eat today?". Important thing is that people care about what you ate today not less then about how are you today! and they can spend even 5 minutes discussing kind of pasta or risotto that we ate today:)

The funny thing is that it doesn't surprise me so much anymore, I'm totally into the food based culture:)

Being 20.. or a bit more!

Got it from Fede today! Liked it a lot and indeed I personally relate to it a lot....

It is when you stop going along with the crowd and start realizing that there are many things about yourself that you didn't know and may not like. You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or two, but then get scared because you barely know where you are now.You start realizing that people are selfish and that, maybe, those friends that you thought you were so close to aren't exactly the greatest people you have ever met, and the people you have lost touch with are some of the most important ones. What you don't recognize is that they are realizing that too, and aren't really cold, catty, mean or insincere, but that they are as confused as you.You look at what you are studying or your job... and it is not even close to what you thought you would be doing, or maybe you are looking for a job and realizing that you are going to have to start at the bottom and that scares you.Your opinions have gotten stronger. You see what others are doing and find yourself judging more than usual because suddenly you realize that you have certain boundaries in your life and are constantly adding things to your list of what is acceptable and what isn't. One minute, you are insecure and then the next, secure.You laugh and cry with the greatest force of your life. You feel alone and scared and confused. Suddenly, change is the enemy and you try and cling on to the past with dear life, but soon realize that the past is drifting further and further away, and there is nothing to do but stay where you are or move forward.You get your heart broken and wonder how someone you loved could do such damage to you. Or you lie in bed and wonder why you can't meet anyone decent enough that you want to get to know better. Or maybe you love someone! but love someone else too and cannot figure out why you're doing this because you know that you aren't a bad person.Getting wasted and acting like an idiot starts to look pathetic. You go through the same emotions and questions over and over, and talk with your friends about the same topics because you cannot seem to make a decision. You worry about loans, money, the future and making a life for yourself... and while winning the race would be great, right now you are scared just to be a contender!

What you may not realize is that every one reading this relates to it. We are in our best of times and our worst of times, trying as hard as we can to figure this whole thing out.