Just like every morning, day after day, week after week, 65 years, Grandma Anna started again.
In 100-year-old Anna Anna Possi, grandmother Anna Possi, is the oldest barista in Italy.
Nonna Anna has been opening her bar center at 7 a.m. since 1958. It closes at 7pm in winter and nine nine days in summer (365 days a year).
In November, Nonna Anna celebrated a century of life – a sign in her cafe to prove it: La Barista piu longeva d’Italia or Italy’s oldest barista to remind guests of their achievements.
But despite all the pride, there is a problem: Italian cafés (many of which are family-run bars) have run out of new blood.
According to the latest data from the National Hotel and Catering Association Fipe, there are 132,000 cafés between South Tyrol and Sicily, compared to 20,000 years ago. The reasons for the decline are almost the same everywhere: working days are 12 to 14 hours, low wages, high rents, and even higher prices for coffee commodities. The trade team said becoming a barista is not an attractive job for young people.
However, cafes are an integral part of everyday Italian life. Coffee cakes, in many other parts of the world, are espresso, or cappuccino in the morning, are usually a cornetto pastry, with a cup or two more at lunch time and then an aperitif in the evening is a daily routine for many Italians. Whether you are in a big city or a small village, you can see each other and talk about this, not politics.
Open all year round – even on Christmas
The same goes for Nonna Anna, who is of course the institution of Nebbiuno. She officially retired at the age of 60 in 1984.
“But why should I stop? My bar isn’t just about working for me. That’s my life,” she said.
She even was on the machine on Sundays and public holidays.
“People want to have coffee on Christmas too.” Her last holiday was in the 1950s – Paris for eight days.
Possi was born a few kilometers away, in Vezzo, and above the lake. Once she finished her studies, World War II was over and she worked at a restaurant in Lake Geneva for several years. There, she met her Swiss national husband René. Together they bought a bar in the heart of Nebbiuno village. But Rene has died for half a century after a heart attack.
“Today, everyone is looking at their phones”
Sometimes, her daughter, Cristina, is 61, is opposite the diagonal diagonal at the Town Hall. She also lives above the bar in the apartment next door. Possi’s son lives 75 km from Milan, and her two granddaughters are no longer in the house. So even at the age of 100, she did most of her work alone from morning to night. She even cut the wood into a small stove.
How much does Nonna Anna make? The price of coffee is 1.20 euros ($1.30), and the cappuccino is 1.50 euros. If there are no tourists, she only has €40 on some nights. She received a €590 pension.
“But I don’t need much. What matters is the people around me. Then I feel good.”
But: “People used to sit here talking and playing with cards. Today, they’re all looking at their phones,” she said. When there was nothing to do, she took out the knitting.
No glasses – half a tablet every day
And her health? “My head is still strong, and so is the bone,” said Nonna Anna, who claimed that the last time she saw a doctor was two and a half years ago. It’s more like five, her daughter, Cristina.
She doesn’t need glasses, but she does need hearing aids, although she says it will never work. And, as far as medicine goes, she only takes one tablet a day to get high blood pressure.
“But I only take half of the tablet. You don’t have to believe everything the doctor says.”
Italy’s oldest barista no longer has any big plans. “I used to want to go to Paris again. But that probably won’t happen,” she said.
She added mischievously: “It’s okay: the French don’t know coffee anyway.”
My daughter doesn’t want to take over
She has no fantasy about what will happen in the middle of the bar.
“When I leave, my bar will disappear.”
For a while, she hoped Christiana could take over, but her daughter wasn’t going to do that. Nonna Anna shrugged and pulled out her knitting again.
Anna Possi, the oldest café in Italy, is in front of her café’s central café. Christoph Sator/DPA
Since 1958
