Image by Alessandra Gesuelli

What about a coffee break while shopping in Milan? Torrefazione Il Caffè Ambrosiano is an institution on the central Corso Buenos Aires 20.

This torrefazione serves excellent espresso and cappuccino. In the morning I go to have breakfast there with cornetti. There are no tables to seat inside, you just stand up and have your coffee!

It’s also a deli that sells different coffee blend, chocolate bars, truffles and sweets. The same little company also owns another shop in corso XXII Marzo 18 and two outside the city.

During Christmas festivities it’s a great place to go for a gift. In this little café I can buy hampers with coffee and sweet delicatessen and they are not so expensive compared to others. The coffee is blended in the Italian traditional way. During spring and summer it serves excellent caffè freddo or shakerato.

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Torrefazione Caffè Ambrosiano | Bars, Coffee & tea | Espresso € 0.90
Corso Buenos Aires 20 | Centrale/Greco | +390229525069
07:00 – 20:00 daily

Image by Alessandra Gesuelli

On piazza delle Cinque Giornate inside the Coin department store there is an Eataly shop. This is the Milan branch of the famous Turin shop, managed thanks to the collaboration with the Slow Food Movement. This association started many years ago to promote good food, zero miles products and local producers.

Eataly is a marketplace, an opportunity to taste and take home the products of artisans that produce high quality food at fair price. When I go there I like to take a basket and fill it with the best Italian cheese, salumi, fresh meat, good artisan pasta, so many sauces and mustards.

Eataly is a real heaven for Italian food lovers. There are some tables where you can have a snack or a brunch. I love to go there to buy bottles of craft beers from Italian microbreweries and the best Northern Italy red wine.

It’s also a great place to find a gift: if you don’t know what to chose there is a new service online or at the shop to buy a voucher from 50 euros as a gift to a friend. So you can bring home your wonderful experience!

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Eataly | Coffee & tea, Shopping, Snacks | Pesto 120 gr € 4.00
piazza Cinque Giornate, 1 | Porta Vittoria | +390292870066
Mon – Fri 10:00 – 20:00, Sat 10:00 – 20:30, Sun 10:00 – 20:00

Image by Alessandra Gesuelli

In the center of Milan there is a special place. It’s called Antica Focacceria San Francesco and takes its name from a similar deli and bistrot in Palermo. I knew the Sicilian branch so when it opened in Milan I immediately went there.

The reason why it is so special is not just for the obvious good quality of their Sicilian food but because that deli in Palermo, run for five generations by the Conticello Family, was one of the first to say no to pizzo, the protection money that hundreds of businesses throughout Sicily have had to pay to the mafia clans.

Antica Focacceria San Francesco soon became a symbol of this fight against the mafia and was an example for others to do the same, together with organizations like Libera and Addio Pizzo.

If you don’t have the chance to go to Palermo, this shop in Milan offers all the best from Sicilian food tradition. It’s open from breakfast to dinner. Here you can find pasta con le sarde, sfincione, panelle and crocchè, cannoli and cassate.

I love cannoli, and here I found the right place to taste them. The secret is that they fill the cannoli with the ricotta cheese cream when they serve it, so the tube-shaped fried pastry remains crunchy! Inside there is also the corner Spirit of Sicily where it’s possible to buy products from Pizzo Free and Libera, grown on land liberated from the mafia. They host regularly some art exhibitions.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Antica focacceria San Francesco | Coffee & tea, Shopping, Snacks, Restaurants (Sicilian) | Cassata € 5.00
via San Paolo 15 | Centro | +390245071057
07:00 – 00:00 daily

Image by chiara anselmo

Milan is the city of design, fashion, it is famous for the Duomo but  not  so famous for coffee. However there are a few “torrefazioni” (shops where you can buy fresh roasted coffee beans) and Hodeidah (aka Torrefazione Procaccini) is one of these.

Torrefazione Hodeidah is a cute little shop with a vintage atmosphere. Here the coffee is drunk quickly (espresso can be finished up in less then a minute) at the counter. I usally come here in the morning and I have a  nice croissants or a pastry together with a wonderful coffee or cappuccino.

Around Christmas time they serve “caffe di Natale” which I love (coffee flavoured with ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and chocolate)

If you’ll enjoy the coffee you’ve tried (I’m sure you will) you will have the possibility to buy it and there is also a wide tea selection together with chocolate, biscuits and sweets candies.

In case at home you don’t have moka pot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moka_pot), you can easily ask to roast the coffee also for other kind of coffee machines, such as American Filter coffee machine or a Turkish coffee machine.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Torreffazione Hodeidah | Coffee & tea | Espresso € 1
Via Piero della Francesca, 8 | Fiera | +3902342472
Mon – Sat 07:00 – 19:00

Image by Arianna Malacrida

A few days ago it was a rainy and cold afternoon in Milano. I was having a walk with a friend and we had this longing for a cup of tea and a slice of cake. I thought about this cute place on the Naviglio Grande called Nero Fondente. Their window is always full of beautiful fresh cakes that seem to tell you “come in and taste me!”.

The place is small and cosy, there is a little mezzanine and from the big window you can see the canal. The apple pie I had was delicious and still warm cause they had just got it from the oven. Everything there is home made and fresh. I can’t say which is the best period to go to Nero Fondente, since when it’s cold outside you can find a warm atmosphere, but in summer you can also stay just outside and have a fresh drink. I would say the style is country-chic and the service very accurate.

They are open daily, from early in the morning until late at night so you can walk in any time.

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Nero Fondente | Coffee & tea, Snacks | Slice of cake € 5.00
Alzaia Naviglio Grande 48 | Ticinese/Genova | +390289059084
08:00 – 02:00 daily