In Naples; Not just Espresso

For centuries the light of the Bay of Naples has inspired poets and artists from Shelley to Cezanne. Even they occasionally had to take pause from their metaphors and hues to satiate their palates and fortify their spirit. To that end, is their a nectar more intense and more provocative than true Italian espresso? And where else but in Naples does espresso find its most refined manifestation? Ineed the ephemeral "crema" (pronounced kray-mah)of this elixir is elevated to ritualistic heights in this city of comedic tragedy and unbridled romance. To the Neapolitan, coffee is much more than a banal morning beverage. It is the sublime expression of a lifestyle, a gesture, at once bathed in comforting warmth of the Mediterranean sunlight and violently cast in the opaque shadow of Vesuvius's volcanic crucible. To taste it is to live it. What, though, is the secret of its power? Perhaps it is the amalgam of virgin spring water and the transcendent heat of olive wood embers that roasts the green Arabica beans until they are transformed to the perfect shade of burnt sienna and ochre.