It was terrific! I had a fabulous time, fabulous food, wonderful wine and many excellent coffees. The event was a meeting of our village with our partner village, Rosora, the second time we were there. I don't think I've ever felt as welcome anywhere in the world and our hosts were as warm and open as only Italians can be. We left by bus at 1 o'clock in the morning and the whole village turned out to wish us goodbye, with hugs and tears in eyes, laughing and singing. What an experience for a little group of conservative German villagers. We all loved it!
I had some excellent espresso in Rosora, Ancona and surrounding areas. Deep, dark, redish crema (which I did not bother scraping off), sweet, balanced flavours, dark roasts, but highly complex and with wonderful mouth feel. Most used coffee from "Spezial," a medium/small roaster in Ancona. Freshness is NOT a problem as they get a shipment every few days and the coffee is used within that time. In fact, the roaster ships only after the coffee is two days old to avoid anyone using the beans sooner than that. My friend who is the barista in Rosora (there's only 1 café) has been using coffee from Spezial (
www.spezial.it) for a number of years and is very happy with it.
I was highly impressed by the barista techniques; careful dosage, distribution and tamping, extraction times of 25-29 seconds, cups pulled out of the stream when optimal extraction was obtained rather than waiting for the pump to switch off. Most of the machines were Spaziale with a few Gaggias and even a 2-group CMA Astoria with gnarled walnut trim just like mine! That machine was in a little bar in the Parco del Conero and was run by a girl who looked to be about 17. The espresso was so good I licked out the cup. Most of the others in our group had cappuccini and they were lovely, with beautifully crafted latte art. I was stunned as I had not expected anything special at a bar in a national park.
All-in-all it was a wonderful 4 days and I am looking forward to my next visit there...but by plane, not by (17 hours) bus.