With apologies to Goethe. For those of us whose serve espresso, "We are all pilgrims who seek Italy". After more than a decade Craig Miller and Alastiar Burns from Miller’s Coffee returned to Italy to do three things: visit the paper makers Fedrigoni and the city of Verona, do some sight seeing in the Tyrol district and check out the latest in hospitality innovation at the trade show Host in Milano.

• Verona and Fedrigoni

  The first stop was Fedrigoni paper makers in romantic Verona, once the home of Romeo and Juliet. Fedrigoni made and supplied the paper for Craig Miller’s book “Coffee Houses of Wellington” which discusses the 1st wave of coffee in New Zealand from 1939 to 1979.

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• South Tyrol

  South Tyrol is the northern most region of Italy. It is mountainous, situated in the European Alps, with large steep valleys. The region borders Austria and Switzerland which influences the architecture and lifestyle. Germanic languages are also spoken by many of the people who live there. The area has its own hospitality culture, which includes wine production and apple growing.

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• Milano, Mu Mac and Host

  Milano is Italy’s second largest city and a global powerhouse in fashion and industrial design. The city also has an espresso museum called Mu Mac which traces the history of espresso machines in Italy. Every two years the city presents an enormous trade show ‘Host’. Host displays the latest in hospitality equipment and ideas especially food and coffee. Numerous New Zealand coffee companies attended including Havana, Supreme, La Mazzoco NZ, Altura, Espresso Engineers, Roma as well as ‘DT’, amongst others. All made the journey to see what was being offered by Italy’s hospitality designers.

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