SOLO UN ESPRESSO
In Italy, when someone says: “Prendiamo un caffè?” there is a very good chance that the coffee has absolutely nothing to do with it.
I mean, si, eventually there will probably be an espresso involved.
But that’s not really the point.
Because prendiamo un caffè can mean:
I haven’t seen you in forever.
I have something to tell you.
I need your advice.
Let’s talk about work.
I was passing by and thought of you.
I have twenty minutes.
I have two hours.
Or simply… Mi va di vederti.
And I don’t think I ever realized how much the coffee was part of our everyday life until I moved away from Italy.
Growing up, coffee was everywhere.
Not in the sense that everyone was constantly desperate for caffeine.
Although… forse anche quello.
But mostly because coffee was a moment, un momento di condivisione.
At work, for example, you didn’t necessarily drink your coffee alone at your desk.
Someone would appear at the door of your office:
“Caffè?”
And that was it. You got up.
Maybe you walked to another office. Maybe to the little coffee machine down the hall. Maybe qualcuno aveva la moka.
Two minutes. Five minutes.
A little bit of work talk, a little bit of gossip, qualcuno che raccontava cosa aveva fatto la sera prima.
Then everyone went back to work.
Until…”Caffè?”
Again. Metà mattina.
And then, obviously, after lunch.
Because the coffee after lunch is practically non-negotiable.
But it happens everywhere, not just at work.
You run into someone you haven’t seen in a while.
“Dobbiamo prenderci un caffè!”
You need to talk about something with a colleague.
“Ne parliamo davanti a un caffè.”
A friend calls.
“Che fai? Ci prendiamo un caffè?”
You stop by someone’s house.
“Ti faccio un caffè?”
Actually, that last one isn’t even really a question.
By the time you’ve answered, the moka is probably already on.
And I love that. Con la mia amica Paola is just like that!
Because there is something so wonderfully simple about using a tiny cup of coffee as an excuse to stop whatever you’re doing and sit with another person for a moment.
No big plans, no reservation, no formal invitation.
Just…un caffè.
I remember so many conversations happening this way.
Sometimes “prendiamo un caffè veloce” somehow turned into an hour.
Because obviously the coffee itself takes approximately thirty seconds to drink.
The conversation? Quella è un’altra storia.
And maybe that’s the funny part.
For something we drink so quickly, we have somehow managed to build an entire social ritual around it.
I think that’s one of the little things I miss about Italy.
That spontaneity.
The possibility that an ordinary day can be interrupted by someone asking you to have coffee.
And suddenly you’re sitting together talking about life.
Nothing extraordinary happened.
Nobody organized anything.
You didn’t need to check calendars three weeks in advance.
You just had a coffee. Or at least that’s what you say.
We have been using coffee as an excuse this whole time. We don’t always want the espresso.
Sometimes we just want the person sitting across from us.
So…ci prendiamo un caffè?
Ciao,
Laura