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Although most Italians drink their coffee in a minute or two, usually at the local bar, not even taking the time to sit down, they take their coffee very seriously. Like many other Italian traditions, Italian coffee is an art form where customs, rules and savoir-faire play an important role.
While it were the Arabs and the Turks who brought coffee to the European continent, it are definitely the Italians who made coffee drinking an art. It was also probably via the italian word caffè (from the Ottoman Turkish pronunciation Kahveh of the Arabic qahwah) that the word entered English around 1600.
The caffé, both the beverage and the place where you consume it, form an integral part of the italian culture. Without exaggerating one may say that the art of preparing and drinking coffee in Italy is comparable to the tee ceremony in Japan, although it is not as time-consuming an activity, as Italians are always in a hurry.
