I’ve had my tea, done my stretching exercises and gotten dressed and now, since I need something a bit more to get me going – to carburare as the Italians would say – I’m ready to go downstairs and get my first espresso of the day.

I’ve been in Rome now for ages, and I don’t have to spend much time deciding which “bar” as a café  is generally called here, I will go to. Ever since I first moved here from the US, I’ve always lived in the same patch of the Trastevere neighbourhood  and although I occasionally introduce a bit of variety, generally speaking my when my feet hit the cobblestones I head right for “my bar”. Called simply “BAR”, on the corner of Vicolo del Cinque and Vicolo di Bologna.

I admit that this place does not look like much, and although it’s somewhat more spiffy than when I first starting coming here, there are lots of places in Rome (although not many around here) that are better furnished and more chic. But that of course has never been the point.

The main point is the coffee, one of my few vices. The second is Giancarlo, the extremely witty but somewhat temperamental barman who has been working here for 25 years. And the third is the chance to be a real part of the immediate neighbourhood, since most mornings I will run into the postman, the brothers who run the jewellery store across the street, the very loud but simpatico wife of the greengrocer, several restaurant owners, a couple of garbage men taking a break, the cops who are duty in the next piazza and Giancarlo and Stella the dress-alike upholsterers from around the corner. It’s like  Cheers, the place where “everyone knows your nay yay yame”.

You  soak up a lot of  neighbourhood gossip here, overhear arguments and get to join in discussions on the weather, the fate of Alitalia, Berlusconi and last night’s TV quiz show.

But you also get to witness, repeatedly, the amazing variety that Italians’ coffee orders take. Espresso or espresso decaf  can be ristretto (less water, more coffee) ristrettissimo, lungo (more water), macchiato caldo (with a bit of hot milk) or macchiato freddo (with cold milk).

Some (usually blue collar workers) want their coffee corretto, that is spiked with something alcoholic. Others want it al vetro, in a small glass rather than the classic demitasse cup. Then there’s the cappuccino (never, never to be drunk at the end of a meal) which sometimes gets modified in the following ways: senza schiuma (no foam) poco schiuma, tiepido (lukewarm), scuro (less milk) or chiaro (more milk).

Since politically correct hasn’t sunk in here as it has in France where one can no longer order a small black coffee with the words, un petit noir, some people ask Giancarlo to make un marocchino, a Moroccan, which is  a lovelty-to-look-swirly drink of ….. What isn’t asked for much these days is a caffe latte which is more of a home breakfast drink especially for older children. And if you’re lucky, you’ll get to hear and American asking for a “latte” and ending up with….a swirly drink of caffé, chocolate and cream.