Il bar la mattina
The bar in the morning
Teresa Colombo
Transcript
In Italy, many people's day starts the same way: at the bar counter.
You go in, greet the barista, and order a coffee or a cappuccino.
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Be careful, though: cappuccino is drunk only in the morning, never after lunch or dinner.
For Italians, drinking a cappuccino after a meal is almost a broken rule.
Many also have a cornetto, plain or filled with custard, to eat along with their coffee.
Most people drink their coffee standing at the counter, not seated at a table.
At the counter, in fact, you pay much less than at a table.
In some bars you pay first at the till, take the receipt, and then go to the counter.
With regular customers, the barista often doesn't even ask what they want to order.
He already knows their order, because they have repeated it every morning for years.
The whole ritual lasts very little: two or three minutes, and then it's back to work.
And yet, in those few minutes, there is room for a couple of words with the barista or with a neighbour at the counter.
It is a small daily pause, a moment of connection before the day begins.