Italian coffee is a candidate to enter the universe of UNESCO's intangible heritage of humanity. With a unanimous decision, the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies has today formalized the candidacy of "Italian espresso coffee between culture, ritual, sociality and literature in the emblematic communities from Venice to Naples" arguing that "In Italy coffee is much more than a simple drink: it's a real ritual, it's an integral part of our national identity and it's an expression of our sociality that distinguishes us in the world".
The candidacy was officially defined after an extensive debate that had developed between north and south, over a year ago, around the proposal.
In reality, in 2019, a first candidacy was presented to the Ministry of Agricultural and Forestry Policies in favor of Italian espresso coffee supported by the Consortium for the Protection of Traditional Italian Espresso Coffee of Treviso born with the aim of promoting, enhancing and protecting Italian Espresso Coffee Traditional. Last year, however, the request for candidacy for the Neapolitan coffee ritual started from Naples.
The President of the Unesco working group of Mipaaf, Giuseppe Ambrosio was appointed in March 2021 by the Italian Unesco Commission to start a negotiation between the two parties to reach a single candidacy dossier for espresso coffee with the aim of presenting "a more solid and representative candidacy of the Italian cultural panorama, in order to further highlight its ritual, convivial and social elements".
It took a year for the parties to agree, hence the articulated definition that brings Venice and Naples, with all their cultural backgrounds, into agreement in a unitary – and national – vision.
Last March, Professor Pierluigi Petrillo, Unesco chair professor, had clarified: «Only one can be presented to UNESCO, the one that more than the others has the required characteristics. Both dossiers will be analysed, but only the one that highlights the ritual and conviviality can be taken into consideration. In fact, UNESCO does not take into account the commercial, entrepreneurial or productive aspects but only and only the anthropological aspect linked precisely to tradition and "cult"».
The debate was also attended by prof. Marino Niola professor of Anthropology at the Suor Orsola Benincasa University of Naples, siding with the Neapolitan dossier. “Actually – he said – I don't think there can be any doubts. The Rite of the Neapolitan espresso coffee is an ancient cultural and social practice – an ancient social drink with which sociality and conviviality are created. Like the Mediterranean diet and then the art of the pizza maker, so too the Rite of the Neapolitan espresso coffee should become part of the Unesco intangible heritage. This is an irrefutable scientific and objective truth. In this regard, it is enough to recall the suspended coffee, i.e. given as a gift to a stranger, or the knee coffee, a practice that spread between the 800s and 900s, when the barista roasted the grounds again in order to be able to sell the coffee at a reduced price to those who he couldn't afford it. Or again the coffee of consolation, when neighbors and relatives give coffee to console the pain of a loss. Unlike Italian espresso coffee, the Neapolitan one has characteristics that are closer to what UNESCO requires».
It took a year but in the end we all agreed on the definition that satisfies the various needs.
It is not only a fact of historical and cultural prestige but above all an important acknowledgment of an economic sector with relevant working repercussions: in fact, in Italy there are 800 coffee roasters and 7000 employees and 30 million cups are consumed a day in bars, restaurants and public places.
"A candidacy capable of giving strong prominence to Italy as a global pole in terms of quality food production and food culture: we do not produce coffee and yet we have managed to impose our processing of the raw material on the whole world". That's what he declares Mauro Agnoletti, university professor e coordinator of the candidacy of Italian espresso coffee in the UNESCO heritage, the day after the presentation of the dossier.
“After more than a year of meetings and mediations – continues Agnoletti – the dossier, which will now be presented to the UNESCO national commission, also represents a fine example of rediscovered unity of the different identities of our country around one of the many strong elements of its food culture”.
“The coffee ritual, with all the social, historical and cultural factors that characterize it - adds the coordinator of the candidacy - concerns the entire Italian population. It involves a multiplicity of communities and local realities united by the sharing of the art of preparation and consumption methods of this drink which has the power to convey social, identity and emotional values that represent our country in the world. The tradition of coffee unifies cities such as Venice, where Caffè Florian was born, the first place dedicated to tasting this drink, with Naples, where coffee is particularly rooted in tradition, so much so that it has taken on its own 'cultural specificity', but is present with different throughout our country.
“It has been a long effort to try to unify two documents that represent different cultures and traditions of coffee and to enhance in a single text the historical origin of coffee which is located in the North East of Italy in particular in Trieste, place of arrival of the first sacks of coffee after the siege of Vienna by the Turks, e Venezia, with Napoli where there is perhaps the strongest emblematic community of coffee, which has transformed it into a rite symbol of Campania popular culture with which coffee is often associated when tasting the drink, also in the rest of Italy”.
"The ritual of espresso coffee - concludes Agnoletti - is now widespread on all continents, representing one of the symbols of Italian culture".
If the candidacy is approved, Italy will add another important recognition to its bag of Universal Heritage. Among the many Italian treasures already registered there are in fact the Italian art of truffle hunting (2021), the Opera dei pupi (registered in 2008), the Canto a Tenor (2008), the Mediterranean diet (2010), the 'Art of the violin in Cremona (2012), the shoulder machines for the procession (2013), the sapling vine of Pantelleria (2014), the art of falconry (2016), the art of Neapolitan pizza makers (2017), the Transhumance (2019) up to the "Art of dry stone walls".
