Our Caffeinated Road Trip 3 - Aroma Specialty Coffee
Published by Tanya in Our Caffeinated Road Trip · 7 December 2021
Tags: Aroma_Specialty_Coffee, Bologna, Italy
Tags: Aroma_Specialty_Coffee, Bologna, Italy
The specialty coffee scene in still new in Italy, right? And it’s just in the latest years that coffee shops started to open up, especially in smaller towns, right?
Nope, totally wrong!
Right in these days is the 20th anniversary of Aroma, a tiny, cozy specialty coffee shop right in the middle of the medieval center in Bologna.
Hidden among a maze of porticos and narrow streets, Aroma is a true gem: owned by Alessandro Galtieri (former Italian Brewing Champion and 3rd at the World Brewers Champion 2019 in Boston) and by Cristina, his historical partner (even in life), they actually have a proper espresso menu… and they’ve got it since 2001!
One of the funny things we remember most about our days of specialty coffee lovers in Bologna, was the mixed crowd we could actually spot while drinking an amazing V60 in one of the comfy, little tables inside Aroma.
Imagine the scene.
Two old ladies, wearing a fancy fur coat, sit at the corner table, gossiping about who knows what. They’re drinking one of the yummy sweet treats made in Aroma: maybe is a shot of espresso topped with homemade zabaione (and if you don’t know what it is, you should definitely give it a try… just heaven soaked in calories!), or maybe is something else… but for sure it’s delicious.
At the bar, a young lawyer all dressed up in his elegant black suit, choose his favorite double espresso from the list. He doesn’t sit, he just stays at the bar to drink it while chatting with Alessandro, and even if it’s properly dressed and his hair are properly combed, you cannot hold back a smile when you spot the tattoos peeking out from under the shirt sleeve.
For sure, this guy has got some nice stories to tell.
At the bigger table near the door, sits a family coming from somewhere in the north. Tall, blond, good looking-viking style. Yep, definitely from somewhere up north. They order croissants and chocolate-brioche for the kids, two giants hot chocolate with whipped cream; a double shot flat white for dad and a generous scrumptious latte for mum. For sure, they know a couple of things about coffee, and before leaving they cannot avoid to congrats Alessandro and Cristina for the coffee… and for knowing how to speak English!
An old, local old man (“umarell”, they call them around here) come inside and order simply “Un caffè”, a coffee, and drinks it silently at the bar.
A young couple, obviously madly in love, sits at a table sharing a slice of cake.
Ah… love.
We sit at the table closer to the bar, to have our share of chat with the lovely owners, and at that point that’s only one table free.
Two girls from Japan come in the shop and sit in the last available table. They’re shy, and even a little bit embarrassed by their little English.
But the English is not so bad in the end.
“Are you Alessandro-San?” they ask “When we decided to visit Bologna, we knew that this was going to be the place we didn’t want to miss! Can we have two V60s, please?”
And that’s it.
An average afternoon spent at Aroma, a melting pot of new and old friends, tourists and locals, specialty coffee and sweet treats.
