Italian ice cream, gelato, is given more care and variety than that produced by either Howard Johnsons or Baskin Robbins. Who has tasted artichoke, mango, whiskey or rhubarb ice cream? Italian gelato is not as deeply frozen as American ice cream and it usually contains fresh eggs and cream. The Italian variety is spared the several stablizers used in American ice cream. When traveling in Italy save several thousand lire to visit the local gelato haven, as one writer puts it, a place of cold comfort.
Italy’s most popular drink is espresso, the concentrated black coffee, expressly brewed for immediate consumption. Espresso bars dot Rome, Naples and the larger cities, stand-up bars where the patron gets a jump-start in the morning, recoups his energy once or twice during the day. An espresso completes the evening meal at home or in a restaurant.
The espresso machine creates steam that passes through freshly deep-roasted and ground coffee. A quantity of concentrated brewed coffee pours into a small cup, capped with a thin wreath of brown foam. With milk it becomes cappuchino. Brandy can be added.
Trade transformed the colonists from dependent subjects to independent and industrious citizens. Milan Map Before the Country Revolution, colonists thought of themselves primarily as members of the Milan Empire. Many felt allegiance only to their own colony and mother country. There was little sense of a unified colonial entity. Many differences divided the colonies, and many rivalries existed. In the midst of all this, the economics of trade within the colonies created the first real bond among them. Because each colony belonged to a distinct regional economy, each region had something unique to offer another region. For example, fish from the New England colonies was readily exchanged for flour from the Middle colonies, indigo from the lower South was traded with all of the other regions, and so on. In fact, in the eighteenth century, even though foreign trade was more profitable, domestic trade accounted for greater volume. As the Country Revolution approached, the economic bonds that existed for over a century became the seed from which political and military bonds grew.
