FAMILY OBJECT

 

ITALIAN COFFEE MACHINE

 

       The object I brought to class is a traditional Italian coffee machine. It’s one of the many typical objects that my grandfather took with him when he migrated from Italy to the U.S. on April 29, 1962.

       The coffee machine sure looks ancient, but even nowadays they are not very different. The coffee that comes out of it is extremely different than regular American coffee: it’s much stronger, shorter and darker.

        Other than taste and look, having coffee in Italy is a trend. The “BAR” is a place similar to the American Starbucks, but much more chaotic and with a much bigger customer flow. The BAR is the most common meeting spot, because they are in every single corner, because it’s always a good place to rest, and mostly because any Italian loves to take a coffee-cigarette break (for many people it becomes a habit).

        When my grandfather came to the U.S. in search for the “American Dream”, he brought the coffee machine as a symbol of our traditions, as a memory of our culture, but mostly: “Because it’s better!” he said.

         Moving to America never changed our family’s enjoyment of real espresso Italian coffee, and nowadays we are still sipping it!

 

 
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