Submitted by Arianna Schiller on the 2019 winter session study abroad program in Italy sponsored by the Department of English…
If someone asked me to name the first things that come to mind when I hear “Italy”, my immediate answer is food and coffee; heavy emphasis on the latter. Since I was a child hearing stories from my mother about her mother and grandmother who immigrated from Italy it always had something to do with a good glass of wine with dinner and a coffee to follow. As a senior in college it is easy to recall many nights in the library chugging an extra-large Starbucks iced coffee at 1:00 am. I guess you could say I am somewhat of a coffee addict. I love walking to class with my Dunkin Donuts coffee as much as I love to sip a homemade latte on a lazy Sunday. In summary, I was very excited for the coffee.
“The thing is, you can’t walk around with that,” our tour guide Richard explained pointing to the to-go cup of coffee in my hand. This was probably the worst thing anyone could have said to me on my second, jet-lagged day in Italy at 8:00 in the morning. I quickly finished my cup of coffee and tossed it in the lobby trash as we made our way out the door to begin our walking tour of Rome.
Making our way out of the touristy area and onto the windy back roads of Italy, I began to notice it… no one was holding coffee cups. Brushing it off, I continued my day, but couldn’t help but notice there was not a single chain coffee shop, anywhere. Fast forward to two days later and I finally feel like I have my bearings in the neighborhood we are staying in and set off to find myself a coffee shop. As I walked with my friend in an attempt to get to the Trevi Fountain without a GPS, we passed a small window showing what looked to be a local café. At 1:oo in the afternoon, the small shop was filled to the brim. After a few minutes of reminding my friend the Trevi fountain is not going anywhere anytime soon, I convinced her to stop so I could get my daily caffeine fix.
We sat down, ordered two cappuccinos (very Italian of us I thought), and just looked around. Men with newspapers, people talking and no laptops in sight; very different than an American café. I didn’t understand the importance of sitting down, slowing down and enjoying coffee that my mother always tried to explain until that very moment. Though my very busy study abroad schedule and my inner ambition to see every part of Rome in a week and a half does not exactly allow for sitting and drinking coffee, it was like an opening to Italian culture to just see people taking a break from their day to have a sit-down cup of coffee.
