L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2022 www.italoamericano.org 24 L'Italo-Americano L iterally, a caffè s o s p e s o i s a " p e n d i n g " o r "suspended" cof- f e e … b u t w h a t does it mean and what's the story behind this habit pop- ular in Naples and, today, also here and there in other parts of the country? F i r s t t h i n g s f i r s t , l e t ' s explain what it is: a caffè s o s p e s o i s t h e c h a r i t a b l e habit of paying for coffees in a d v a n c e , f o r p e o p l e w h o may not be able to afford o n e . Y o u h a v e y o u r d a i l y e s p r e s s o a t y o u r l o c a l bar and, when it's time to pay, you tell your barista to c h a r g e y o u f o r o n e , t w o , three - or twenty, it's really up to you - coffees that can then be enjoyed by whoever comes after you. It's a small g e s t u r e , b u t c o n s i d e r i n g how we Italians feel about coffee, it's pretty important n e v e r t h e l e s s . I l caffè remains, for those who love it, more than a simple d r i n k : i t i s a m o m e n t o f relaxation and self-care and, in those short minute or two w h i l e w e s t a n d a t t h e counter of a bar, time and troubles stop. If you look at it this way, then you under- stand why caffè sospeso is w o r t h m u c h , m u c h m o r e than the couple of dollars of its actual price. If today you can find caffè sospesi in cafés across the country, especially in big cities and especially in the South, it still remains strict- ly connected with the place it was born, Naples . The tradition came to be, as it often happens with small, but meaningful acts of char- i t y a n d g o o d n e s s , i n t h e harshest of times, during t h e S e c o n d W o r l d W a r . When you'd get your espres- so al bar, back then, you'd often pay for two, just in c a s e s o m e o n e w a s n o t a s lucky as you, and couldn't a f f o r d s u c h a s m a l l , b u t essential pleasure. There are also other hypotheses for its origin, though. According to Riccardo Pazzaglia , Neapolitan writer and jour- nalist who passed away in 2 0 0 6 , t h e h a b i t w a s t h e r e s u l t o f t h e – m a n y ! – good-hearted diatribes that would arise among friends when it came to paying for c o f f e e s a t t h e b a r : s o m e wanted to offer a tazzina di caffè to their friends, others weren't sure if this or that person at the table had it or not, so you'd often end up paying for one or two coffee that hadn't been consumed. W h e n y o u r e a l i z e d i t , i n s t e a d o f a s k i n g f o r t h e money back, you'd just leave a coffee paid and pending at t h e c o u n t e r , f o r w h o e v e r came after you. Whichever version you prefer, the habit did indeed lose popularity during the s e c o n d p o s t - w a r p e r i o d , only to be revived in 2010 by the historical Neapolitan c a f é C a f f è G a m b r i n u s , on the occasion of its 150th birthday. In 2011, a Caffè Sospeso Day was created and the tradition bypassed Neapolitan and Italian fron- tiers to become a bit of a g l o b a l p h e n o m e n o n : t h e p r a c t i c e s t a r t e d t o b e applied in places as distant and different as Argentina and Ukraine, Ireland and the US, Canada and Roma- nia, Spain and Australia. In 2013, even Starbucks UK e m b r a c e d t h e t r e n d a n d signed up for a charity ini- t i a t i v e w h e r e d o n a t i o n s w e r e m a d e f o r e a c h s u s - pended coffee purchased by its customers. In 2020, during the first, harshest months of the pan- demic, Italians began using the caffè sospeso format for C o v i d - 1 9 t e s t s : y o u ' d g e t o n e a n d c o u l d p a y f o r a n o t h e r t o b e o f f e r e d t o someone who needed it but may not be able to afford it (we are talking about non- compulsory tests, those you could get done at the phar- m a c y , a s m o l e c u l a r t e s t s were paid by the State). Perhaps, the best descrip- tion of the beauty of caffè s o s p e s o w a s g i v e n b y N e a p o l i t a n w r i t e r a n d p h i l o s o p h e r L u c i a n o D e Crescenzo, who wrote, in 2008, that Quando qual- cuno è felice a Napoli, paga due caffè: uno per sé stesso, e d u n a l t r o p e r q u a l c u n a l t r o . E ' c o m e o f f r i r e u n c a f f è a l r e s t o d e l mondo. Or, to say it in Eng- l i s h : " I n N a p l e s , w h e n someone is happy, they pay f o r t w o c o f f e e s : o n e f o r themselves, the other for someone else. It's like offer- ing a coffee to the rest of the world." T h e I t a l i a n w o r d c i r c a ( c h e e r - k a h ) i s not unfamiliar to English-speaking folks: we use it with dates to i n d i c a t e s o m e t h i n g h a p - pened around the time we mention. In Italian, it has the same meaning, but with a couple more nuances. Of course, the circa we like in English is not really Italian, but Latin, of course: we, just like many languages a r o u n d t h e w o r l d , k e e p a thing or two from the old R o m a n s ' l a n g u a g e i n o u r own idiom. Italians, though, we know it, have more Latin in theirs than they may like to admit, so it isn't surpris- i n g t o s e e t h e y k e p t a n adverb just the way it was, without even attempting at g i v i n g i t a n " I t a l i a n o makeover." In any case, the word is first attested in the I t a l i a n l a n g u a g e i n 1 3 2 1 , which is, incidentally, the year Dante Alighieri left this earth to catch up with Virgil and Beatrice again. This time for eternity. In Italian, circa means "about," and embraces both meanings of this common English word: you can use it t o s a y c ' e r a n o c i r c a 1 5 0 0 p e r s o n e a l l a m a n i f e s - tazione ("There were about 1,500 words at the gather- i n g " ) , o r t o m a k e c l e a r that ho bisogno di parlarti circa una questione di lavoro p i u t t o s t o i m p o r t a n t e ( " I n e e d t o t a l k t o y o u a b o u t some pretty important work matters"). However, its use to indi- cate what something is about isn't really common, espe- cially when we speak, and often sounds a bit flouncy and unnatural. Go ahead and use it in writing though, if the register and the situation call for it! - Mi ci sono volute circa tre ore per completare il test - It took me about three hours to finish the test - Erano circa le 10, 30 del mattino quando l'ho visto uscire da casa - It was about 10,30 in the m o r n i n g w h e n I s a w h i m leave home - P r o f e s s o r e , l e d o v r e i parlare circa la sua ultima lezione e l'essay che devo scrivere. LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE Word of the day: circa – a precise word for imprecision Italian curiosities: what is the "caffè sospeso"? Two cups of espresso: one of them could be a caffè sospeso (Photo: Bogdan Hoda/Dreamstime) © Novoselov | Dreamstime.com

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