Espresso tales

In Italy, coffee is an opera that is sung to the sense of taste

- Jug Suraiya

Not unlike TS Eliot’s Prufrock who measured out his life with coffee spoons, Italians mark the daily passage of time with the drinking of the beverage.

The new day is greeted with a thimble-sized cup of espresso, made at home in a Moka pot, or drunk standing at the counter of one of the innumerable cafes that dot the city wreathing the streets with a bouquet of the brew. Espresso, black as midnight and bitter as gall, is pure ambrosia to the true lover of caffeine.