Espresso is one of the most famous Italian symbols in the world, could be declared cultural Unesco World Heritage.
The minister of agriculture, food and forestry policies Stefano Putuanelli has in fact announced the presentation of the World Heritage candidacies of the traditional Italian Espresso Coffee ritual, considered to be a true art.
The deadline for the submitting applications is March 31, and after this date Unesco will meet in Paris to begin the evaluation process.
"An inclusive and democratic gesture to be enhanced - as written on the Consortium for the Protection of Traditional Italian Espresso, amongst the promoters of the Unesco candidacy - Drinking a coffee is a daily ritual that allows us to share carefree moments with friends and colleagues. An inclusive, democratic, and indispensable gesture, linked to tradition and out lifestyle".
"Since the eighteenth century, coffee has been a narrative device for writers, poets, and songwriters. Making the coffee ritual official, making it an intangible Unesco Heritage, also means keeping it alive" as explained by the Consortium.
In recent months, the "Culture of Neapolitan espresso coffee" has been added to compete with the "Traditional Italian Espresso Rite" for its candidacy as a World Heritage.
After a few weeks of the documents analysis, Mipaaf established the priority of the traditional Italian espresso coffee ritual, with the same constitutive elements from the dossier, due to the presentation of the relative proposal at the beginning of 2019, while the one of the culture of Espresso Coffee from Naples was presented in mid 2020.
However, the Unesco working group of the Ministry of Agricultural Policies has recently decided to propose both candidates, giving priority to the Italian Espresso,and, alternatively, to the Neapolitan culture of coffee.
The ball now passes to the Unesco experts who whill have to decide whether the ritual of Espresso coffee has those essential cultural, social, historical and traditional implications that will crown it as an Intangible Unesco Heritage of Humanity.
We, obviuosly, think so!
Italiano 
