Sitting here on a wet and windy winter's day my mind wanders back to last summer, sitting in hot sunshine outside the little bar in my Italian village. Bars in Italy dispense alcohol like elsewhere, but during the morning they are filled with Italians standing at the counter drinking coffee - tiny cups of strong, black espresso whose smell pervades bar and pavement. This glorious nectar is so rich in flavours and aromas, is so redolent of Italy and things Italian, that it still surprises me that there are people who don't like it. Perhaps it is an acquired taste but once acquired there are no substitutes. No other coffee comes close to the pure intensity of an espresso.

It came as something of a shock, therefore, to discover that Italians drink on average less than half the amount of coffee as their northern European neighbours. Perhaps it can be explained by the fact that although morning coffee is virtually a religious rite, few Italians drink more than two a day. And they are of course very small cups.

Go into an Italian bar and ask for a coffee and an espresso is what you get, unless you specifically ask for a variant. Lungo, or long, means with more water that is usual, ristretto is with even less. Macchiato means a splash of milk, and a cappuccino is with plenty of hot milk. A cappuccino is considered a food, not a drink. Italians will talk of eating some hot milk for breakfast rather than drinking it. This explains their reaction to people who order a cappuccino from lunchtime onwards.

Last summer Dillie Keane paid us a visit in Italy where she became quickly loved by one and all. Her habit of ordering a cappuccino at night in the bar caused endless mirth. It became her best known foible and was much remarked upon. They really viewed this behaviour as perverse and bizarre. Although I would never do it in Italy, I have been known to drink a cappucino in the afternoon here in Ireland where no Italians can see me.

So what makes a caffe so special? The answer lies in those wonderful chrome machines that hiss and spit steam. By forcing steam at close to 200 degrees fahrenheit and at 9 atmospheres of pressure through finely ground coffee, solubles, oils and colloids are carried from the grounds to the cup. giving an espresso its inimitable flavour. A well-made caffe will have a golden-brown foam on the to that should cling to the sides of the cup whichs is known as the crema di caffe. The steam pressure creates a very different chemical brew to coffee made by infusion techniques. It is concentrated and intense, quite unlike the watery coffee so common here and elsewhere.

Finally, here's a thought: Italy is the only country I know where instant tea is a common sight. Maybe where coffee is so much the national beverage, tea is treated with less respect. Here tea is treated with respect and we drink instant coffee.