Coffee in Naples is much more than a drink. It is a real ritual with specific rules and traditions. One of the rules is that of cuccumella, the coffee maker invented in 1819 by a Frenchman who researched in the city and which the Neapolitans then made their own. has been replaced over the years by the simpler one mocha, in the homes of the Neapolitans, occasional coffee is prepared with the cuccumella.

“If there is one thing that makes the Neapolitan rite of coffee unique, it is the family aspect”, explains Professor Helga Sanità, anthropologist atSuor Orsola Benincasa University of Naples. “In Naples – he continues – there is a ritual according to which every day, and even several times a day, the family is created around a table or on a sofa to have coffee together. And even beyond the family, the fundamental aspect of the Neapolitan rite is that of socialization. Coffee is not a drink, it is a time to be together “.

A ritual that the Campania Region now wants to preserve by nominating it as an intangible heritage of humanity to Unesco. A candidacy that, however, found an obstacle: a group of entrepreneurs from Trieste who would like to nominate the most generic Italian espresso. A commission formed by the representatives of the two factions, in these days, is seeking mediation.

Mario Messina