On December 29, 2010 I arrived in Italy for the first time in my life. I went on a two and a half week vacation with my boyfriend to visit his family in Naples. It took a few days to get used to their different lifestyle, as it would for anyone visiting a new country. Although I am Italian and share many of the same customs a few things were very different.
Leaving America I wouldn’t call myself a “coffee Lover” as most people would classify themselves. I didn’t drink coffee for breakfast or even with desert, I drank it on rare occasions. In Italy it is their tradition to constantly serve espresso continuously throughout the day. They serve it in the morning with breakfast, after lunch, in between lunch and dinner, for desert and before bed. Unlike the United States they only serve one ounce instead of 8-20 ounces per serving. Little did I know espresso had the same amount of caffeine as a large cup of coffee, and thinking it was smaller I didn’t realize my intake. In Italy it is an insult to not take what the host of the house is offering to you so I always took the coffee when they gave it to me. Long story short my body got so used to drinking the espresso that I need to drink coffee every day.
Every morning before school I go to 7-eleven to get coffee, and sometimes in between classes I purchase coffee at our Starbucks on campus in the D’Angelo Center. 7-eleven charges $1.62 for a small cup of coffee and Starbucks charges $1.63 for a tall. Just in one week I spent over $10 in coffee. You may not think that is a lot but that’s almost $50 a month just for coffee. Now that I realized how much money I am wasting, I am slowly going to break this habit.
