The title of this قصة عشق article is from an old Turkish proverb, which for this writer is more than acceptable seeing that in 1475 'Kiva Han', the world's first coffeehouse, opened in Constantinople. So I figure the Turks have a more sane and traditional handle on one of my favourite pastimes; drinking a black as hell, strong as death and you know the rest, coffee first thing in the morning. And did you know that in 1538 Ottoman Turks occupied Yemen and parboiled coffee beans (to render them infertile and maintain their monopoly) and exported them from Mocha, hence coffee's nickname "mocha." Then in 1650 a Lebanese Ottoman Jewish student named Jacobs opens the first European coffeehouse at Oxford University, England. Over the next half century, coffee takes Europe by storm, where coffeehouses are called "penny universities." The rest they say is history until the beginning of the Americanization of this special beverage, reeking with flavour and history, when in 1871 John Arbuckle opens a coffee factory in New York and makes millions from his pre-roasted, packaged, and branded Ariosa coffee.

So let me get this off my chest now; Starbucks is a great marketing success in the good 'ol US of A tradition, but its overpriced coffee is a full blown Greek tragedy and should be avoided at all costs! Which brings me to Italy? Ah yes, bella Italia, a land whose cuisine is still tied to the changing seasons; where a fresh seasonal vegetable is a thing to behold and cooked to perfection and when in 1901, the Italian Luigi Bezzera invented the first commercial espresso machine, giving birth to one of the best examples of coffee we can enjoy today. I hope that somewhere in the steel and glass canyons of New York and Chicago, there still exists a small, much loved, family coffee shop that's been serving their blend for generations, with passion and an eye to the quality of the roasting and serving the stuff fresh - like within a couple of days of the grinding of the beans! The espresso can be served as hot as you like but the cappuccino and more precisely, the milk in it, must be served warm and no hotter otherwise you burn your tongue and prevents you from tasting the flavour of the coffee. This is beyond arguing; warm, not hot!

As for all the groovy coffee shops from London to Sydney proclaiming themselves the best, newest and slickest place to enjoy your cup of java, which by the way, you will need to mortgage your house to enjoy on a regular basis; well who really cares. In Rome or Naples, the best cities in Italy to enjoy a truly superb coffee, the most popular bars are those filled with locals jostling for their morning hit, weaned as children on the true flavour of coffee and who become the most brutal of critics when it's not up to snuff, without a care for the décor of their bar, which is an extension of the family kitchen after all.

It's the coffee stupid and not the quasi Zen designer bar with a Billie Holiday track spilling out of the Bose speakers! As for a decafe coffee, well Bob Irwin once said that 'drinking decaffeinated coffee is kind of like kissing your sister.' Now I'm off to have a coffee at Renato's in Rome, just behind the Pantheon. You can discover more of my secret coffee locations by, downloading the Perfect Traveller Audio Tours! You didn't think I was going to give up all that precious information in this story did you!?