Page 19 - Dream of Italy - October / November 2021

WIKICOMMONS / BLACKCAT

Cappuccini at Caffè Tazza d’Oro

shirt is stained with coffee, use acqua minerale con gas and
blot the shirt with a white cotton cloth or a paper towel.
If coffee gets on silk or wool, use still water and Marseille
soap. Other responses to particular stains include white
wine vinegar, coarse salt, glycerin and baking soda.
Once the stain has been addressed in its urgency, take
your garment to the lavanderia (laundry) or tintoria (dry
cleaner). My school friend all those years ago in Bologna
taught me that clothing should be laundered slowly and at O CT /NO V 2021
low temperatures to avoid damaging the fibers. If possible,
avoid dryers or use them sparingly as the dry heat can
in bars around the country. But it also has more than harm your clothes. To me, seeing laundry flapping on
700 roasters called torrefazioni that cater to local tastes. clotheslines and drying in the sun is the perfect expres-
You enter to have a perfect espresso and then buy a bag of sion of the Italian preference for going slowly to achieve Drea m of Ita ly
beans to take home. One of my favorites is near the Pantheon superior results.
in Rome: La Casa del Caffè Tazza d’Oro (Via degli Orfani, 84; So now I will make a confession: I have a small suit-
39-06-6789792; www.tazzadorocoffeeshop.com), whose case that can hold 26 shirts. Each time I go to Italy, I pack
rich aromatic blend makes delicious espresso, cappuccino this bag with shirts in need of washing. In various towns 19
and granita di caffè—coffee ices served con panna (with around the country, I know of lavanderie that take pride in
real whipped cream). That is a real pleasure! their work, using delicate soaps and tepid water, drying in
Now imagine if, on your passeggiata, you have coffee, the sun and then carefully pressing with a cool iron. These
gelato or perhaps oily canapés with your aperitivo and your shirts have lasted for more than 15 years because the
beautiful clothes get stained. Or if you go on to dinner and fibers are treated with care, the shirts don’t shrink and the
get splattered with tomato sauce, gravy from your main collars don’t fray.
course, squid ink or deep red wine . . . I know that many people dream of Italy for all kinds
of reasons filled with grand passions and regard for the
Handle With Care nation’s achievements. That is valid and I have those
To me, another Italian pleasure is the knowledge many dreams too. But, in a period when so much has been taken
people have about dealing with this crisis. Restaurants away from humanity, it is those simple pleasures that
immediately bring out a powder or liquid that prevents the Italy does so well that fill my reveries. I dream of il sapore
stain from going too deep into the fibers of your cotton, della vita—savoring life. 
silk or wool garment. I have learned some of the secrets
based on the offending stain or the fabric being treated. Fred Plotkin was named,
Talc goes on olive oil in a restaurant but then you use dish by the president of Italy, as
soap on oil-based stains at home. Use cold water and salt a Cavaliere della Stella d’Italia in
2015 for his decades of service
on blood. Ink requires cotton balls soaked in cold water spreading Italian culture
followed by cotton balls soaked in alcohol. If your cotton around the world.