

I was personally able to visit this past July and can attest to their wonderful granite creations and cappuccino ghiacciato.Ĭaffè Sicilia, Corso Vittorio Emanuele, 125, 96017 Noto.

Caffè Sicilia is still a family business with over 100 years of history and the 4 thgeneration Assenza is now bringing the family-name to the world’s stage. You might recognize the name from Netflix’s Chef’s Table (from season 3) but there really is something quite special about this place located in the heart of Sicily’s most beautiful baroque town serving up superb Sicilian treats and great coffee by acclaimed pastry chef Corrado Assenza. Today it remains just as elegant, with a long marble bar where patrons clamour for their morning espresso together with a delectable array of mouth-watering pastries and chocolates within its eclectic art-nouveau interiors.Ĭaffè Gilli, Via Roma, 1r, 50123 Firenze FI. With over 270 years of history, Gilli was established by a Swiss family changing locations in the center before finally ending up in the coveted corner it calls home today in Piazza della Repubblica. Not only is this place a household name in Florence but it also happens to be the most historic café in town. For a truly exceptional coffee experience, here are some of the winners of the coveted “3 tazzine e i 3 chicchi” top prizes around the boot. Between frequent coffee stops, perhaps along a walking holiday with Inntravel taking you through Italy’s most picturesque locations, you can enjoy the true dolce vita lifestyle as its meant to be lived.Įver on the search for the best of the best, Gambero Rosso, the publisher of highly regarded guides to the best Italian food and drink culture has to offer, recently came out with a list of best bars around the peninsula listing over 1300 addresses in its 19 thguide and 44 places with the maximum votes or chicchi (coffee bean) possible. It’s also worth noting that taking it slow on holiday is the trick to truly appreciating a country like Italy. Slowly, but surely, local businesses are starting to catch up. People’s consumption here in Italy is changing and there is ever more of a want to sit and enjoy one’s artisanal coffee con calma. In Florence alone, we have a lovely blend of historic coffee houses along with places that specialize in a newer wave coffee experience with speciality varieties namely Ditta Artigianale, Carduccio, Melaleuca, Caffè Piansa and Coffee Mantra.įor those who might think of these newer places as a threat, think not, for this only encourages the coffee culture to itself improve in sourcing blends and types, both ethically and sustainably. Since arriving in Italy over twelve years ago I have been on endless meetings where coffee was and still is the common denominator to help fuel the conversation. I myself am as passionate as one can be about the liquid that a French diplomat once coined “Black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love”. The good news though is that you can enjoy the best of both worlds around the boot as speciality coffee bars are making their own revolutionary arrival offering more than your standard espresso with a varied mix of filtered concoctions and speciality blends, with flat whites and cold brews no longer an impossible find. A break between meetings, catching up with a friend, fuel before the rest of the day’s adventures after lunch slinging back a steaming hot espresso standing at the bar is a treat available for all, the most diplomatic of beverages. That being said, the concept of sitting down and sipping a coffee for hours on end is still quite “new” compared to other countries. Nowadays, “prendiamo un caffè” (let’s get a coffee) is still very much ingrained in local life with a recent study showing that over 5.8 million people in Italy preferring a coffee bar to start their morning. As the 1700’s made way for a new century, elegant coffee houses around Italy become the popular stomping grounds for artists, poets and revolutionaries. Italians certainly didn’t invent the concept of coffee but as coffee houses in Venice started to serve this addictive black drink it soon became popular in other areas of Italy namely Turin, Verona and Milan. Is there anything quite as quintessential as a cup of coffee, part of a culture in Italy as commonplace as the Colosseum in Rome, or Venice’s Grand Canal.
