100 year old coffee machine at Aristo's

For many years there has been a small copper coloured Aquilas coffee machine sitting on the top shelf gathering dust above the bar in Aristo’s. This week it was taken down and looked at more closely after questions were asked about its origins. Some names were printed at the base of the small machine – “Fratelli Santini” and “Ferrara” – with the aid of some quick search engine action, it was found that the Aquilas coffee machine was the first Moka machine to be produced in Italy. It was designed and made by the Santini brothers in Ferrara way back in 1910 – so this year the Aquilas machine in Aristo’s bar is 100 years old and is a bona fide antique.

It was brought into Barga directly from Ferrara by Aristo’s  father in law as a present for his daughter Luciana Agostini and was used for many years to make coffee for their clients before changing habits and larger, faster machines relegated the Aquilas to the top shelf.

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The machine has now been cleaned and tested to make sure that it is still safe to make coffee and will be used for the first time in many, many years on the 12th February as part of the National Saving Energy Day, “M’illumino di meno” held each year in Italy when people trying out various systems that visibly show that they are attempting to save energy.

That evening the lights that normally illuminate many national monuments in Rome and Milano will be switched off to “highlight” this attempt at saving energy on a large scale.

Here in Barga, for the fourth year running, Aristo’s bar will be joining in and switching off the lights for the evening and instead turning to candle power to keep the dark at bay. A team of cyclists will take turns to mount and pedal a fixed bike connected up a  number of dynamos which will supply, faltering at times, a light source to keep everybody in sight. Music (rigorously acoustic) will be supplied by members of the Barga Jazz Festival. This year there will also be an installation by some of the artists from Venti d’Arte