The ritual of full-flavoured, deep, fragrant coffee has spanned over four generations at a slow, inexorable pace. Ancient, brand-new, deeply ingrained but cosmopolitan, transformational, enjoyable coffee: Morettino, from Palermo to the world at a slow pace. Arturo, Angelo, Alberto, Alessandro, Andrea... their names only begin with A. And, as Andrea Morettino tells, it happened almost by chance, just the way things happen, the way traditions begin. Four generations of capital A with a unique passion: the black gold of Italian morning awakening, which is not Italian (actually: it was not...), namely, coffee. It all started at the Spezie e Coloniali shop in San Lorenzo ai Colli, a residential area of Palermo. In Sicily, in the 1920s, coffee was just one of the odd things in the shop. It was Arturo who began nurturing the passion. A tireless worker, he made blends, tried methods and created the coffee roasting business. In a historical period when cafés were the venues for culture, meetings,

I miss the sea. Covid-19 affected our emotions. As if there were – and there is – a higher stake that is life. Hence no cinema, no walks, no shopping at the market. How much I miss it! I'm not worried about myself. I'm a fatalist. I overcame a tumour – they couldn’t take it anymore at the Veronesi hospital [European Institute of Oncology]. They said I puzzled them, but I know they had fun after all! Now, I’m worried about my family, my daughters and grandchildren.The sea, like paintings, is a kind of inheritance, a family thing. My father was a real artist [Eustachio Catalano, an artist and former director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Palermo], and my brother was a marine biologist. Part of my childhood was imbued with the sound of the waves of the Sperone suburb. What else could I have painted if not the sea?

I miss my sea and going fishing. I miss Arte al Borgo because it’s now gone, and even the place is not the same anymore. I used to go arm in arm with Sciascia. First, we discussed