Coffee

Café life — or in this case, caffè life.  Here's the corner bar in San Giustino (Valtiberina), Umbria, where we lived for three months a few winters ago. Valtiberina indicates that it's in the valley of the Tiber River. There's another San Giustino in nearby Tuscany, known as Valdarno, meaning it's in the valley of the Arno River.

At any rate, as with many Italian towns, this café was the all-day hangout for the older men while the women shopped (note the shopping bag, lower-left) and then repaired to their houses to spend the afternoon cooking.  Here the sun had come out and the men were happy to move to the outside tables.

The coffee shops were often staffed by younger women.  Here some San Giustino baristas take a smoke break with one of the locals at the corner of Crucifix Street.

Here's the inside of one of our favorite cafés, Dedalo, which also served pizza.

This café is in Deruta, about an hour away, home of the famous maiolica (aka faience).

And this café is in Ravenna, on the Adriatic coast. As you can see, here are more town geezers hanging about. Some of them appear to have ridden their bikes today.

We were always happy to find a hospitable coffee shop to warm up in after tramping the frigid hilltown lanes.