L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2026 www.italoamericano.org 12 L'Italo-Americano W alk into a c a f é a l m o s t anywhere i n t h e world, and you are likely to encounter a descendant of a machine developed in Milan more than a century ago, La Pavoni. Considered one of the companies most closely associated with the birth of e s p r e s s o , L a P a v o n i h a s played an important role in Italian coffee culture since 1905. Its story begins with two men in 1901 Milan, where i n v e n t o r L u i g i B e z z e r a patented a machine designed to prepare coffee more quick- ly by forcing hot water and steam through finely ground coffee. The invention showed promise, but it was engineer and entrepreneur Desiderio Pavoni who saw its commer- cial potential. In 1903, Pavoni a c q u i r e d t h e r i g h t s t o Bezzera's patent and, two years later, founded his com- pany, La Pavoni. Production began with the Ideale, one of the earliest espresso machines manufac- tured on a commercial scale. The new technology became immediately famous for its speed and reliability, which allowed coffee to be prepared directly in front of customers, helping transform the café experience in Italy's growing cities. This is why La Pavoni is important not only for its machines but also for the cul- ture it helped create: during the early twentieth century, e s p r e s s o b a r s b e c a m e a familiar part of Italian urban life, and people got into the habit of stopping for a quick coffee and continuing with t h e i r d a y , a r o u t i n e t h a t remains central to Italian coffee culture today. If it weren't for La Pavoni's cof- f e e - m a k i n g s p e e d , i t wouldn't have happened. A f t e r W o r l d W a r I I , i n 1948, the company intro- duced one of its most impor- tant innovations, the Model 47, featuring a horizontal boiler instead of the tradi- tional vertical design. The machine quickly earned the nickname La Cornuta ("the horned one") because of its distinctive appearance. In fact, the iconic Model 47 is also considered a good exam- ple of another key aspect of L a P a v o n i ' s i d e n t i t y : t h e combination of engineering and design, here reflected by the participation in the pro- ject of renowned architect a n d d e s i g n e r G i o P o n t i , t o g e t h e r w i t h A n t o n i o F o r n a r o l i a n d A l b e r t o Rosselli. A n o t h e r m a j o r t u r n i n g point came in 1961 with the introduction of the Europ- i c c o l a , w h i c h b r o u g h t e s p r e s s o i n t o t h e h o m e . C o m p a c t a n d e l e c t r i c a l l y p o w e r e d , i t a l l o w e d c o n - sumers to make espresso and cappuccino without visiting a café. More than sixty years l a t e r , t h e E u r o p i c c o l a remains one of the compa- ny's most recognizable prod- ucts, and its polished metal b o d y a n d l e v e r - o p e r a t e d m e c h a n i s m h a v e b e c o m e icons of Italian design. In 1974, La Pavoni intro- duced another influential model, the Professional, which built on the success of the Europiccola but offered greater capacity while retain- ing the classic lever system. Just like its predecessors, the Professional became a design c l a s s i c a n d e v e n t u a l l y entered the collection of the Museum of Modern Art i n N e w Y o r k , j u s t l i k e another icon of coffee mak- ing, Bialetti's moka. Without a doubt, espresso technology has evolved dra- matically in recent decades, and almost everyone now has a n e s p r e s s o m a c h i n e a t home, but La Pavoni contin- ues to be distinctive and real- ly special, both for its design and its technical characteris- t i c s . A u t o m a t i c m a c h i n e s dominate much of today's m a r k e t , y e t t h e c o m p a n y remains closely associated with traditional lever-operat- e d e s p r e s s o p r e p a r a t i o n , which many coffee lovers view as essential to make the perfect cup. And because cof- fee enthusiasts are every- where in the world, it's not surprising to learn that La Pavoni machines are sold throughout Europe, North America, and Asia, where they remain popular espe- cially among home baristas. I n 2 0 1 9 , t h e c o m p a n y entered a new chapter when it was acquired by Italian a p p l i a n c e m a n u f a c t u r e r Smeg. More than 120 years after its founding, La Pavoni is still a symbol of Italian innova- tion and history all at once: its machines helped create espresso culture as we know it today, and brought café- quality coffee into our homes, all while demonstrating the strong bond between design and technology. I f your grandmother ever used an adding machine at her job in t h e 1 9 6 0 s , s h e w a s o p e r a t i n g a d e v i c e whose roots go all the way back to a workshop in Flo- rence, and to a brilliant, but o f t e n f o r g o t t e n , I t a l i a n inventor named Tito Filip- po Gonnella. Born in Livorno in 1794, Gonnella earned his doctor- ate at the University of Pisa and went on to teach mathe- matics and mechanics at Flo- rence's prestigious Accade- mia di Belle Arti. He was the kind of man who couldn't look at a problem without wanting to solve it: and in 19th-century Italy, one of the biggest problems was arith- metics. Back then, all calcu- l a t i o n s w e r e s l o w , d o n e entirely by hand, and error- prone, unless you were extra careful or a pro at maths. As a teacher and engineer, Gonnella was very aware of the problem, and that's why h e s t a r t e d d r e a m i n g o f a machine that could add reli- ably and simply, reducing mistakes and making arith- m e t i c s e a s i e r . A n d s o , b e t w e e n 1 8 5 7 a n d 1 8 5 9 , Gonnella built two calculat- ing machines, entirely by hand: the first, a stylus-oper- a t e d d i a l a d d e r , w a s a brass-and-iron device about the size of a shoebox, where numbers were entered by guiding a pen along a series of dials. The second, a key- b o a r d a d d e r , w a s e v e n more forward-thinking: nine keys, pressed one digit at a time, drove a rotating drum that kept the running total. Neither machine was per- f e c t ; t h e d i a l a d d e r , f o r instance, had a tendency to j a m a t c r i t i c a l m o m e n t s , exactly the kind of thing that would have driven any self- respecting Italian engineer up the wall. And the key- board adder, while clever, w a s s l o w . Y e t t h e y w e r e i n n o v a t i v e e n o u g h t h a t G o n n e l l a s h o w e d t h e m across Europe and in 1862, h i s d i a l a d d e r e a r n e d a n honorable mention at the G r e a t L o n d o n E x p o s i - tion, praised for its ingenu- ity and simplicity. A year earlier, back home in Flo- rence, the machines had won a m e d a l a t I t a l y ' s f i r s t National Exposition in 1861. Today, one machine rests at the Museo Galileo in Flo- r e n c e ; t h e o t h e r i s i n t h e A r i t h m e u m M u s e u m i n Bonn, Germany. Gonnella's prototypes were part of the Great London Exposition of 1862 (Image gen- erated using Adobe Illustrator AI) Tito Gonnella and the invention of the calculator La Pavoni: a Made in Italy coffee icon The Europiccola La Pavoni brought café-style espresso into Italian homes in 1961 (Image generated using Adobe Illustrator AI) IMPRESA ITALIA MADE IN ITALY TOP BRANDS BUSINESS & ECONOMY

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