The Best Coffee Shops in Italy

A humble two-group espresso machine anchors one corner of this neighborhood bar-cafe, while the rest belongs to the bakery. Far from the tourist drag near Palermo's train station, it pulls nonnas and taxi drivers for arancini at lunch and a standing espresso at the counter. Local roasters fill the hoppers alongside guest roasters, and the full specialty menu runs flat whites to cold brew. Old-school institution, no airs about it.

A weathered brass 20kg roaster dominates the back of this old-school Palermo coffee shop, which has been grinding away in a narrow alley of the historic quarter for as long as anyone can remember. The retail side stocks beans from Hawaii to Colombian rum co-ferments alongside moka pots and hazelnut spread, while next door the standing-room sister café handles cappuccinos, granita, and brioche. One counter serves everyone from espresso purists to the lighter-roast curious.

A four-generation Sicilian roaster that claims to be Palermo's first true specialty coffee shop, with the Lab outpost sitting inside the Palermo Yacht Club right on the harbor. Getting there means winding past longshoremen's warehouses, which only makes the swank patio payoff stranger and better. A Modbar gleams behind the quartz counter, French and Italian pastries arrive on stained wooden boards, and a cocktail bar waits across the room if the cortado isn't cutting it.

A standing-room coffee shop tucked off the square at Colonna dell'Immaculata, Vago Rizzuto runs an unusually long menu for a cramped little room: shakeratos, V60 pour-overs, iced oat milk lattes, and multiple espresso options sit alongside wine by the glass and local beer. The menu is written in English, which tells you everything about the crowd. Focaccia sandwiches and Italian pastries handle the food side, and there's an AeroPress off-menu if you know to ask.

On a pedestrian street in the Politeama-Libertà office district, this coffee shop pulls shots with local roaster Histo Caffè but keeps specialty options from Casper tucked behind the counter for those who ask. The young baristas speak English and will happily dial in a gently roasted Gesha for anyone not ready for Palermo's standard ristretto. Filter options, including Chemex and V60, are available too, which is quietly unusual for an espresso city.

A kiosk with an old "Cafè Du Parc" sign still tilting off the roof sits at the junction of three Rome neighborhoods, pulling triple duty as a specialty coffee stop in the morning, a place to idle through the afternoon, and a low-key bar by evening. Draft cocktails and natural wines bring in locals who don't mind trams rattling past on the cobblestones. Staff playlists give way to vinyl, and nothing about the pace ever tips into trying too hard.