My mother's cappuccino stop in Moonee Ponds, Melbourne, Australia

A coffee place named Piccina Espresso Stop squeezes in amongst the row of shops that look out onto the historic Moonee Ponds railway station. Piccina Espresso Stop is informed by all things Italian. The owner has decked the space with items eliciting the Italian dolce vita. The result is a Fellini-like ambience, where pastiche upturns sentimentality, and gives new life. Coffee lovers, like my mother, come for a cappuccino, but even more so for a chat in the language they have preserved from the time they stepped onto Australian soil. It is rough around the edges, and the different intonations reflect the different Italian localities of origin, even international localities where Italians have settled historically, like the Greek island of Rodi. Inside the café, a unique Melbournian way of talking Italian merges with the murmur of the breeze through the leaves of the Elm trees that line this Moonee Ponds street and stand witness to the rumbling trains. 


©Silvana Tuccio 1 December 2017
silvanatuccio@gmail.com