Italy’s Finest-kept Espresso Secret Is This Gorgeous Port Metropolis and Its Timeless Cafes

I assumed I knew every part there was to learn about Italian espresso. I’m a three-cup-a-day man, and my standby is a single shot with a little bit of foamed milk: a traditional macchiato. When in Rome, I frequent Caffè Sant’Eustachio, the place the baristas make a gossamer crema, masking their approach behind a hulking Cimbali machine.

In Naples, I ensure that to ask for my espresso with out sugar: southerners choose robusta beans, that are darkish and excessive in caffeine, so they have a tendency to compensate by sweetening their espresso. I’ve even made the pilgrimage to Turin, the place Italy’s first espresso was served at an industrial honest in 1884, to go to its slick interactive espresso museum and take a look at a drink known as bicerin, a mixture of espresso and sizzling chocolate topped with a relaxing crema al latte.

However on my first go to to Trieste, the small metropolis tucked away within the northeastern nook of Italy that many take into account the true capital of espresso, I used to be at a loss. On the Antico Caffè San Marco, my first cease after getting off the sluggish practice from Venice, the closest factor to a macchiato was a goccia, an espresso topped with a drop of milk foam. In order for you an ordinary espresso, order a nero — which in different elements of Italy will get you a glass of crimson wine. Most individuals ask for a capo in b, which a server instructed me is sort of a cappuccino, however with much less milk, and served in a bicchiere, or glass, moderately than a cup. Mine arrived on a silver tray, together with a small glass of mineral water, the way in which it’d at a Kaffeehaus in Austria. Certainly, with its intricate woodwork, Comedy and Tragedy masks, and patrons quietly analyzing the day’s broadsheets, the cafe felt extra like one in Belle Époque Vienna than modern-day Italy.

Trieste is the Mediterranean’s main port for espresso beans from Africa and South America. Whereas Turin is the house of Lavazza, Trieste is the town constructed by Illy. It’s stated the everyday Triestino consumes 22 kilos of beans a yr, virtually double the Italian common. Maybe not coincidentally, given all its cafes, Trieste can be a metropolis of writers: Casanova and the poet Rainer Maria Rilke hung out there, and the late journey author Jan Morris subtitled her book-length tribute to this out-of-the-way metropolis “The That means of Nowhere.”

To be taught extra, I organized a chat with Cristina Favento, a journey and meals journalist who has researched the historical past of Trieste’s cafes. We met on the terrace of Caffè degli Specchi, within the Piazza della Unità, an enormous seafront sq. lined with stately Nineteenth-century palazzos. “100 years in the past, there have been 4 cafes right here, and their tables and chairs would have crammed up virtually the entire piazza,” Favento stated. “All people needed a special espresso, so the waiters got here up with brief names for them, like goccia or capo in b.”

Favento attributes Trieste’s distinctive espresso tradition to its historical past as the principle seaport for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Beginning in 1719, espresso and different imports had been now not taxed. The Hapsburg ruler Maria Theresa opened the town to Jews in 1771 and, 10 years later, Emperor Joseph II issued an “edict of tolerance” that codified freedom of faith. These declarations attracted individuals from across the Mediterranean, lots of whom went into the coffee-importing commerce.

After World Warfare I, when Trieste grew to become a part of the Kingdom of Italy (till 1943, when it was occupied by Nazi Germany), the cafes stored their Mitteleuropean traditions — and never simply when it got here to espresso. Whereas many Italians get pleasure from croissants often called cornetti with their morning espresso, Triestini would possibly as a substitute snack on buttery brioche or a slice of strucolo, the native model of strudel.

In the present day, a minimum of 10 historic cafes stay in Trieste, every with its personal distinctive character. The oldest, Caffè Tommaseo, was based in 1830 as a collection of jewel-box rooms adorned with sculpted cherubs and crimson velvet seating. The terrace of Caffè Urbanis, situated on a bustling piazza, is a superb place for a shakerato, chilled espresso shaken with ice and sugar or easy syrup. Sadly, an overreaching renovation of the inside didn’t go away rather more intact than the whimsical flooring mosaics depicting the bora and the opposite winds of the Adriatic. Extra to my style was Antico Caffè Torinese, the place the marble counter dates again to 1919 and the inside resembles that of an ocean liner. (The unique designer went on to embellish the Saturnia and the Vulcania.)

Caffè Pirona has its personal literary legacy: James Joyce was an everyday throughout his years within the metropolis at the beginning of the twentieth century. Whereas standing on the counter, I struck up a dialog with barista Massimo Zulian in regards to the origins of the capo in b. “There’s numerous wind in Trieste, and it’s chilly within the winter,” he defined. “The story goes that they served espresso in a glass so individuals who needed to work outside might heat up their fingers.”

Earlier than I departed Trieste, I returned to the place I’d began, Caffè San Marco. In a lifetime of coffee-shop sitting, this can be the very best cafe I’ve ever encountered. A part of the enchantment is that it’s hooked up to a beautiful bookstore, Libreria San Marco, which hosts readings and different literary occasions. However what actually spoke to my writerly soul was the hushed, dimly lit inside, which includes a frieze of gilded espresso leaves.

As I fantasized about Joyce strolling in off the road and ordering an aperitivo — or one thing just a little stronger — I claimed one of many marble-topped tables. I requested for a capo scuro, a macchiato with just a little additional espresso, which, I’d found in Trieste, is my new favourite drink. 

A model of this story first appeared within the December 2024 concern of Journey + Leisure below the headline “A Metropolis Abuzz.”