The Trieste show finished 5pm on Saturday afternoon. In the tradition of the Expo, the last afternoon revolved around the exhibitors visiting each others stands with bottles of bubble to open and enjoy. The crowds were thinning after 12, and there was time to get to know our neighbours. On one side of us was Sandalji, a standard splendid in Canary Yellow- well lit and setup. In front of us we had Bazzara Espresso (the flamboyant and charming Francco Bazzara at the helm). To the side Royal Espresso machines from Congeliano. Within a stones through Demus, Nuovo Simonelli, Ancap Cups. Soon the show was over for another 2 years.

On the Sunday Astoria/CMA organised for a group of us to visit Venice- to enjoy some coffee and to see how Venice café life works. The group left Trieste at 9am, and we arrived in Venice around 11am. We had a coughing and spluttering baby in tow. He had picked up a cold in the cold winds we had been buffeted with in Trieste. The Venice visit was great. We visited the Doge Café as well as Florian on Piazza San Marco. Although the history of Florian was obviously fascinating, I was more impressed with the Doge. They are located in a tiny sliver of a café not far from St Paul Piazza. The shop is, well, difficult to find. A couple of weeks later when I returned by myself, I was pretty fortunate to stumble across it again. I think though if you can speak Italian, it would be no problem. The café sells around 7kg of coffee a day, and is well known by Venetians. The internal setup is cosy, space is utilised to the last square inch to display the huge range of single origins- Galapagos, Rwanda, Indian, Laotian origins to name just a few. They have 3 machines, 2 Brasilia pumps and a Brasilia Lever (3 Group) which is used exclusively for extracting SOS’s. The shots they pull from the lever machine were all rich and creamy. It got me wondering about the lever… more on that in a later post.

The Florian is regarded as one of the grand cafes of Europe. From the outside you can not fail to notice the waiter staff- all men- all dressed in white dinner jackets. The café is nearly always full, and was for many years segregated- men doing their drinking in one place, the ladies in another spot. Fabulously decorated in paintings hundreds of years old, it feels like you are stepping back in time as you go through the door. An Elektra machine dominates the bar area, while staff are not scuttling, but ‘moving with purpose’. We tried two drinks here- an espresso (which I must say I have trouble raving about) and a kind of Italian Mochaccino- a shot of espresso mixed with chocolate and topped with cream- a bit like a con panna, but subtly different. The feel of sitting in the drawing room “of the artists” is thrilling and difficult to describe. I would return for the ambience, but maybe not for the beverages.

After a full day in Venice the group retired to CMA/Astoria’s home town of Susegana, up in the rolling foothills of the Dolomites. The town is simply picturesque- you could not have picked a better spot to build an Espresso Machine factory. The NEW factory, a beautiful state of the art facility, was completed just as we were visiting in 2006. At that time the old factory consisted of 4 units spread either side of a busy road. Getting around and transporting half made machines between factories was difficult (and perhaps dangerous!) The new factory has everything well laid out under 1 HUGE roof. Pressing machines, conveyor systems, cutting tools and even a couple of robots work away under eco controlled lighting and heating systems. We – Zan from Thailand, Roberto from Philippines and Angke from Romania were not there as tourists. We had 3 days really full on training with the +4U and the new thin/Slim Sara Super-automatic. The training facility was excellent and soon we were able to do pretty much anything associated with the technical side of both machines. Of course 3 days training was also accompanied by decent food- lunch at the Susegana factory cooperative café (all the factories pitch in and subsidise this facility which serves some very tasty Italian fare). Dinner at various local Trattoria. Not surprisingly most of the machines we saw in the town, and the neighbouring town of Congeliano, were San Marino, Astoria or Wega… all CMA brands.

Training finished Wednesday and we said our goodbyes to all. Roberto and Christine (his partner) headed off to Venice, Zan back to Bangkok (or was it Bari???) and us to Naples and Sorrento… It had been a busy three days and there was much more to fit into a tight program. To top that off a chill was in the air, a coldness that meant snow was on its way…!