ROME -The Italian Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MIPAAF) has announced its support for the candidature of the ‘Italian coffee rite’ for UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list. A representative for FIPE-Confcommercio has said, “it is an important result for a industry in crisis.”

  The Intangible Cultural Heritage list is UNESCO’s way of celebrating and protecting local and national cultural practices, customs and events.

  The Consortium for the Protection of Traditional Italian Espresso Coffee (CTCEIT), a member of FIPE-Confcommercio, the organisation that represents the hospitality and tourism industries, nominated the national drink for the list, and is leading the promotion of its inclusion.

  Alessandro Cavo, the FIPE-Confcommercio delegate for CTCEIT, has said, “we welcome with great satisfaction the words of MIPAAF in support of the candidature of the Italian coffee rite [to the list]. Our federation has supported this project since the beginning, and we hope it can be a decisive push to finally relaunch our bars, the ideal place for this much loved Italian ritual to live on, an integral part of our cultural heritage and common social capital.

  “We know it is not the last step, and that now the choice passes directly to UNESCO, first in Italy and then in Paris. However, we have reasonable conviction that the result will be positive and that we will finally succeed in obtaining this important recognition that will be a benefit to the whole country.”

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