Monday, October 04, 2004


coffee in amalfi etc.

my first real day back is kinda crazy, as you might expect, so i'm just going to quickly note a few facts about coffee slightly south of naples, on the famed amalfi coast.

surprise -- it's not all naples-staple, caffé kimbo! unsuprise -- it's mostly la cimbali machines!

i had coffee in 2 places in the main square in amalfi: the bar francese, which uses caffé sombrero, a smaller neapolitan brand with more arabica than the standard kimbo blend used by most coffee bars, and andrea pansa, which uses illy.

this is a case in which i was pulling for the illy, frankly, and wasn't disappointed. but the sombrero is interesting to try.

in positano, there's no doubt: the best coffee is the bar internazionale, which is the favorite of locals. it's at the very top, and is just the local bar, newsstand, wine stop, etc. where the real residents of positano enjoy themselves.

luckily, the little positano interno bus stops right there, so you can save your knees. while surely other americans must drop by, i never saw any when i was there.

after this brief coffee-stop south i trained back to rome, on my way north to siena, a.k.a. bei & naninni land. i did try to find a place serving jolly, but couldn't find one that was open -- the bar acquacalda was closed for a couple of days.

i'll have to get a can of jolly and try it here state-side. . .

the weather in siena was unseasonably cold and brutta ("nasty"). we enjoyed -- that's not really the right term -- the first fall rain two weeks early.

thus it was a great pleasure to hang about with the sienese in the grand nannini cafe and dunk a slab of torta ghibelline into my cappuccino. the torta ghibelline is a species of chocolate panaforte -- sometimes called "sienese fruitcake" -- but made with only hazelnuts and candied orange rind, no other nuts or dried fruit.

the nannini boasts a large flat-screen tv, which was always turned to the italian news-and-weather channel. so those with even a smattering of italian could observe and eavesdrop on the real italian perspective, as the sienese commented freely on what they saw. . .

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