A SECOND HOME IN ROME
When it comes to coffee, we all speak Italian. But is the traditional café under threat? Rome resident JOSEPHINE MCKENNA spends a day in her local to find out談到咖啡時，人人都對意大利推崇備至。可是意國傳統咖啡店是否受到威脅？住在羅馬的
Is Italy’s café culture under threat? Rome resident JOSEPHINE MCKENNA spends a day in her local café to find out
羅馬人的第二個家
意大利咖啡文化是否面臨威脅？居於羅馬的Josephine McKenna花了一天在當地咖啡室中尋找答案
You might call it the art of seduction. The intoxicating aroma of freshly ground coffee beans begins wafting through the streets of Rome soon after the sun rises.
Whether it’s a homemade brew or a pitstop on the street, sipping a coffee is irresistible for most Italians.
But it’s also part of the culture, an essential element of daily life that blithely overcomes demographic differences, class distinctions, age and wealth.
Whether you come from the north or the south of the country, coffee is more than just a kickstart to the day – it’s a social lubricant, a universal language. Perhaps that’s why some Italians can drink up to a dozen cups a day.
The elegant cafés of Turin and Naples are steeped in tradition and claim to have the best coffee in the country. But the Romans refuse to be outdone.
Down a narrow cobblestoned street, a short stroll from the Italian capital’s Campo dei Fiori flower market, the Romans are lining up inside the Barnum Café for their first coffee of the day just after 9am.
‘Coffee is fundamental, it’s important,’ one customer tells me. ‘Every day a Roman stops for a coffee at least once. It is not about the conversation but the conviviality.’
Beneath the wood-lined ceiling that dates back centuries, the bar at Barnum is laden with fresh croissants and apple cake.
The coffee machine is humming as customers shout their early morning orders. ‘So you are still alive?’ shouts the barista at one regular who hasn’t been seen for a while.
Lately, there have been shocking stories circulating that the traditional Italian café, while still alive, is not entirely well.
A BBC report headlined The Italians who like to drink American coffee noted the launch of US-style coffee joints selling mega-sized cardboard cups, ‘fun’ flavours and bagels and doughnuts.
你可以將之稱為「誘惑的藝術」。出日 之後不久，羅馬的街頭就會飄來一陣陣令人陶醉的即磨咖啡豆香味。對大部分意大利人來說，無論是自家還是街頭小店沖泡，濃香 咖啡的誘惑實在沒法抵擋。
咖啡也是意大利文化的一部分，是當地人日常生活中不可或缺的元素，易輕而舉地消除了人口、階級、年齡和財間富之 的差異。
不論來自意國北部或南，部 咖啡對所有意大利人來，說 絕不只是一杯清晨提神的飲料那麼簡單。咖啡是一種社交潤滑、劑一種共通的語言。或許這就是有些意大利人可以每天喝上十多杯咖啡（甚至更多）的原因。
都靈和那不勒斯的咖啡店格調優雅，滿載傳統風情，而且聲稱他們的咖啡冠絕全國。但羅馬人絕不就此認輸。
在意大利首都的Campo dei Fiori花卉市場附近一條鵝卵石窄道上，剛過上午9點，多許 羅馬人已經在Barnum CafŽ咖啡店排隊，等候享受當天的第杯一 咖啡。
‘Italian coffee shop culture is so traditional that it has determinedly ignored modern consumer trends,’ a spokesperson for research firm Mintel told the BBC’s reporters.
But as I settle in for a day’s people watching at Barnum, it soon becomes obvious that this is one traditional café that’s not afraid to give tradition a spin.
There’s a bit of a circus theme here – hence the name. Smartly dressed customers take their seats at quaint, marble-topped tables and chunky velvet sofas. Above the bar, two statues of swimmers dressed in vintage costumes add a touch of whimsy to the rows of liquor bottles.
Eighty-year-old Vincenzo Zucchi braves the traffic and cycles across Rome for nearly an hour every day to stop by for his morning coffee. ‘ The people you meet here you don’t find anywhere else. They are really marvellous.’
The snowy-haired Roman with a matching beard finishes his cappuccino before chatting to other clients and taking a seat outside the door. ‘Look around you,’ he tells me. ‘ There’s an atmosphere that you can only find here.’
A bearded man in a tailored suit waits patiently for his coffee, while half a dozen construction workers burst through the door, sweep him aside and shout for their coffees. They’re espressos; you don’t need to spell that out in a proper Italian café.
‘Here you find good coffee, and you can eat well,’ one worker says.
A brawny deliveryman, carrying crates of fresh ruccola, carrots and seasonal fruit on his shoulders, swears loudly as he shoves past the crowd on his way to the kitchen. A waiter takes coloured chalk and scribbles daily lunch specials on the wall.
Customers begin to pull out their laptops as the music cranks up and shifts to retro 1970s hits like Le Freak. A couple of tourists are mapping out their itinerary for the day while an older American is talking local university politics.
In Italy most people drink their coffee on their feet, tossing down an espresso or a caffè macchiato at the bar; but here you can take your coffee at a slower pace. Wherever you go in Rome the barista plays
YOU MIGHT MEET YOUR FRIENDS OR COLLEAGUES, BUT YOUR RAPPORT WITH THE BARISTA IS CRITICAL你可能是跟朋友或同事見面，但最重要的是與咖啡師熟絡
an important role and they can make or break the business.
‘You might meet your friends or take a coffee with work colleagues, but your rapport with the barista is critical,’ says Daniele, a blogger visiting Barnum for the first time.
‘If they are good, they will remember you and also remember the kind of coffee you like. It’s all about social relations.’
For many Italians a coffee can conjure up memories of childhood experiences, romantic encounters or travel adventures. One friend confided that as a child he always woke up to a steaming cup of coffee his mother lovingly left beside his bed, while another admits the coffee machine is the first thing she packs in the suitcase when she goes abroad because she doesn’t trust the coffee or the baristas.
Italians may not have invented coffee. They’re not even the most fervent coffee drinkers in Europe (that’d be the Finns). But somewhere along the way they adopted it as their own and perhaps that’s why they are responsible for the ‘Italianisation’ of the coffee we drink today. How could we order a cappuccino, caffè latte or doppio espresso anywhere in the world without the vocabulary the Italians so kindly provided? ( Worth noting: if you order a ‘latte’ in Italy you may well get a glass of milk.)
Maybe a long menu of new-style flavoured American coffees will find favour with Italy’s Instagram generation. But as the best baristas know, the range of coffee they serve is already as diverse as their customers.
Because Italians love to personalise
店內一位顧說客 ：「咖啡十分重要，是每天的必需品。羅馬人每天至少會停下來喝杯一 咖啡，的目 不是聊天，而是跟朋友同樂」。
Barnum歷史，悠久鑲嵌少條的天花板有數百年歷史，下面的吧台內放滿了新鮮出爐的牛角 和蘋果蛋糕。
咖啡機發出嗡嗡作響的聲音，顧客高聲地點他們的；咖啡 有一位好一段時間沒現老出 的 主顧光臨，咖啡師向他高聲喊道：「原來你還未！死 」
近日有人流傳一些關於傳統意大利咖啡店的，謠言 聲稱這些咖啡店雖然並未消失，但前景堪令虞， 人頗感意外。
英國廣播公司一段以〈喜歡喝美式咖啡的意大利人〉為題的報道指出，美式咖啡店湧現，的出售 都是超大紙杯裝、口味「有趣」的，咖啡 以比冬及 高 和 甩。
市研場 究公司敏的英 特 發言人告訴英國廣播公司的記者：「意大利的咖啡店文化非常傳，統 甚至對現代消的 費趨勢刻意視而不見。」
但是當我在Barnum坐下，準備仔細觀察當地人的日常生活時，很快就發現這是一勇將統間於 傳 加以變化的傳統咖啡店。
這日帶有一點馬戲團的，氣息 而店名亦與馬戲團有淵源。古古色 香的大理石桌旁和厚實的鵝沙天 絨 發上，坐著衣飾入時的顧客。台吧 上放著兩尊穿著老式游泳衣的泳手雕像，為旁邊一排酒瓶增添一絲天馬行空的幽默感。
年屆80歲的Vincenzo Zucchi每天早上花一小時踩單車穿越交通混亂的市羅馬區，前來這日喝咖啡。「在這日碰到的人特別精采有趣，是在別處找不到的。」
這位鬚髮皆白的老人喝完泡沫咖啡之後，在門外的座位坐下來，跟其他客人閒話家常，他跟我說：「看看四周。這日的氣氛堪稱獨一無二。」
一位蓄著鬍子、穿身 剪裁妥貼的西裝的耐男士 心地站在店內等他的，咖啡 六個建築工人突然闖進來，從他身邊擦，過 高聲向侍應點咖啡。不用說也知，道他們要的是正的宗 意大利濃縮咖啡。
一位工人說喝：「 到好咖啡，就有好胃。口」
一個身形壯強 的送貨員扛著幾箱新鮮的芝麻菜、胡蘿蔔和時令果鮮 ，擠身穿過店內的人群走去廚房，邊走邊大聲罵著髒話。有個侍應拿著彩色粉筆在牆上寫下當天的特餐價午 菜式。
這時音樂換上了如《Le Freak》這種1970年代的，金曲 音量亦漸趨大聲，客
their order. One customer approaches the bar asking for a cappuccino al vetro
(cappuccino in a glass) and another a caffè macchiato con latte freddo (café macchiato with cold milk). ‘It’s all about differentiating yourself,’ says one Barnum customer wryly.
Perhaps it’s also about the theatre – and Romans certainly love that. I’ll never forget the elderly woman who stood in front of me at one Rome café and complained loudly because her Italian doughnut was not pretty enough – brutta and not bella.
As the early morning coffee hour slips into lunchtime, the laptops at Barnum are replaced with home-style dishes and a glass of wine. Local favourites like tonnarelli all’amatriciana (pasta with a sauce of tomatoes and pork jowl), polpette di manzo (meatballs) and saltimbocca alla Romana (veal wrapped with prosciutto and sage) can be had for a few euros – washed down with yet another coffee.
Hungry customers park their bicycles out the front and stylish young men and women stroll in and out while diners discuss the ingredients of their dish.
At the door, diners spill out onto the street for a cigarette and one last cup of coffee before they head back to the office, the stores nearby or their next appointment – which may include another coffee before the day ends.
Because there is always time for just one more. And in this coffee-mad nation, there’s plenty of room for more cafés, including the American-owned one that’s due to open in Milan next year. Its owner says it will enter the Italian market ‘with humility and respect’ and ‘honour the Italian people and their coffee culture’.
Its name? Starbucks.
人開始拿出他們的手提電腦；幾個遊客在計劃當天的行程；一位美國長者在談論當地的大學政策。
在意大利，大部分人都是站著喝咖啡的；他們會一口喝光濃縮咖啡，或在酒吧來一杯瑪奇朵咖啡，但在這裡你可以細品慢嚐。在羅馬，無論任何一家咖啡室，咖啡師都扮演重要的角色，是決定一家咖啡店成敗的關鍵人物。
首次造訪Barnum的博客Daniele說道：「你可能會跟朋友見面，或是和同事一起喝咖啡，但最重要的是與咖啡師熟絡。」
「一位優秀的咖啡師會記得你，也記得你喜歡哪種咖啡。這是一種社交關係。」
對許多意大利人來說，咖啡可以喚起他們的種種回憶，例如童年經歷、浪漫相遇或旅行歷奇。有個朋友告訴我，小時候一覺醒來，床邊總有一杯包含母親愛心的熱咖啡。另一個朋友則承認每次出國旅行時，第一件放進行李箱的物品就是咖啡機，因為她對國外的咖啡或咖啡師沒有信心。
咖啡可能並非意大利人發明的，他們甚至不是歐洲最熱衷咖啡的民族（那是芬蘭人）。但是，在某種程度上，他們將咖啡融入自己的文化，也許這就是我們現在喝的咖啡已經「意大利化」的原因。我們怎麼可能在世界任何地方點一杯泡沫咖啡、牛奶咖啡或雙份濃縮咖啡時，不用上意大利人提供的詞彙？（不過要記住，在意大利點一杯「latte」，你可能會得到一杯牛奶。）
目前種類五花八門的美式新口味咖啡，或許會得到意大利IG世代的青睞。但是所有優秀的咖啡師都知道，他們所沖泡的咖啡，款式已經和顧客一樣多姿多采了。
因為意大利人喜歡要求咖啡師按個人口味來沖泡咖啡。有人要cappuccino al vetro，就是用玻璃杯裝他的泡沫咖啡，也有人要求caffè macchiato con latte freddo，即是用凍奶沖泡瑪奇朵。一位Barnum的客人語帶嘲諷地說：「他們就是想要與別不同。」
或許這一切也跟劇場有關，羅馬人肯定熱愛戲劇。我永遠不會忘記在羅馬一家咖啡店排隊時，站在我前面的一位老太太高聲抱怨她的意大利冬甩樣子難看，不夠漂亮。
清晨的咖啡時間飛逝，轉眼來到午餐時段，放在Barnum店內桌上的手提電腦，換上了家常菜式和一杯紅酒。只要數歐元，就可以品嚐到當地人喜愛的菜式，如tonnarelli all’amatriciana（辣煙肉番茄手切意粉）或polpette di manzo（意式牛肉丸），還有saltimbocca alla Romana（牛油白酒香煎火腿小牛肉卷），當然少不了一杯咖啡。
饑腸轆轆的客人將單車停在店門前，打扮時尚的年輕男女穿梭其間，用餐的客人在討論盤中菜式所用的食材。
在門外，客人三三兩兩站在街上抽煙，或再喝一杯咖啡，然後有些回去辦公室，有些去附近的商店逛街或奔赴下個約會地點，稍後傍晚可能還會再喝一杯咖啡。
因為總會有時間再來一杯。在這個熱愛咖啡的國家裡，還有不少空間可以容納更多咖啡店，包括一家將於明年在米蘭開幕的美國咖啡店。該店東主表示，將會以「謙卑和尊重」，以及「心懷敬重意大利人民及其咖啡文化的態度」進入意大利市場。
這家新進美國咖啡店名叫星巴克。