The Problem With Starbucks in Italy

I am appalled to say that a fifth Starbucks is opening in Florence today.

This time, in the absolute HEART of the historic center on Via del Corso.

Do you know the significance of Via del Corso? When the ancient Romans constructed their towns, the Corso was the principal road running east-west. It crossed the Decumano, which ran north-south. Florence's origins go back to the ancient Romans and in Florence today we still have the same Corso, bearing the same name, where once the footsteps fell of the Roman soldiers of Julius Caesar.

After the western Roman Empire fell, and after the terrible Gothic wars, when Florence started recovering, the area of the town around Via del Corso grew into the heart of the medieval city. Still today this street, and the charming warren of narrow streets around it, delight the visitor because they retain such a medieval look, making it easy to imagine centuries past.

Until now, there's been a cultural integrity in those streets that we haven't lost.

The location of this new Starbucks on Via del Corso is also on the corner of Via dello Studio. The first University of Florence stood on this street, founded in 1321. Boccaccio, one of Italy’s most important literary figures, gave lectures here on the Divine Comedy.

I can’t help feeling that now, a reason for visitors to head to Via del Corso, will be to feed at the trough of a multinational company that represents the very opposite of Italian culture.

I can’t help feeling a Starbucks here will detract visitors from focusing on the rich and significant history of Via del Corso and Via dello Studio. And that it makes Florence’s rich patrimony a little harder for the visitor to see, to absorb, to appreciate.

I can’t help feeling that it mares the cultural integrity of the heart of this city—that a Starbucks here is a gash in that integrity—like slashing a knife into a medieval painting in the Uffizi.

It was around 2015 or 2016 when we began hearing threats of Starbucks moving in to Italy. We talked about it a lot, expats and Italian alike, with a mix of bafflement and horror.

We hoped it wouldn’t happen.

It happened. 

The first one came to the heart of Milan in 2018, taking over a historic post office and creating a flashy 25,000 square foot “Reserve Roastery”. A place thoroughly unlike an average Starbucks in an average American street or mall.

Courtesy of Daily Coffee News

This Starbucks went all out to make a splash, with a Tuscan marble-topped heated counter, a 500-pound in-house coffee roaster and 360-degree view of the roasting, a liquid nitrogen affogato station and cocktail bar, and a wood-fired pizza oven.

They knew they couldn’t compete with the local coffee bars across the country that serve high-quality coffee for a low price, and where patrons and baristas are on a first name basis. What Starbucks had to do was make it about the experience. Make it a Disney Land of a coffee shop. 

Like with the first Mc Donald’s in Rome, this had to be the most beautiful Starbucks in the world. It had to be a destination. Otherwise, Starbucks wasn’t going to crack Italy.

The first Starbucks in Florence was far outside of the center, in a mall in the suburbs. We sighed with relief. We wouldn’t have to see it elbowing out local shops in the historic center. 

We wouldn't have to see the logos and stores of global corporations smeared across the city’s unique historic center, toning down its distinctiveness. 

Then, one arrived in Florence’s train station and we worried about the continuing standardization of taste and homogenization of culture. We worried that encroachment into the historic center might be upon us.

But we had reason to keep the faith because Florence's mayor, Dario Nardella, in 2016, had blocked Mc Donald's from opening in the Piazza del Duomo. 

Mc D’s pushed hard for this location (demonstrating they don't give a rat’s a** about cultural heritage). But that's not all: Absurdly, the fast-food chain sued the city of Florence €18 million for the lack of approval to place their unhealthy, environmentally unsound slop in one of the most stunning and famed historic sites in Italy. 

But cultural preservation won out, and we cheered.

And we prayed that Florence would have the fortitude to withstand this type of pressure from the Goliath corporations.

But in the summer of 2023, like a jack booting Nazi, Starbucks marched within a few feet of Piazza del Duomo—the beating heart of city’s religious center—and set up shop in Via de Cerretani.

And we saw we were losing.

And now, today, the opening of the one on Via del Corso is breaking a lot of hearts.

Starbucks doesn’t fit in Italy because American and Italian coffee culture are as opposite as the North and South Pole.

Italians believe coffee should be high-quality but with a price accessible to all. It should be simple and understandable, and not rainbow colored. 

Italians are rooted to their town and their long-standing culture. They are accustomed to knowing the people running the locale where they get their coffee. They view multinational chain coffee stores with suspicion.  

To circle back to what I said about the first Starbucks in Milan taking their cue from the first Mc D’s in Rome, here’s the story about that:

The first Mc D’s in Italy opened next to Piazza di Spagna, across from the Spanish Embassy, in 1986. The company had to make a splash to lure customers. It couldn’t be an ordinary Mc D’s. They gave it a pseudo-Roman feel with fake Roman statues and mosaics and included a McCafé with pastries and gelato and a huge seating area upstairs.

And no, I have never entered and never will. I’m a diehard Slow Food fan. I just know these things as it was a big deal when it opened, the year after my first stint living in Italy. And lately, with the advent of social media, it’s become a big deal again. TikTokers excitedly video the replicas of Roman statues at the entrance, the mosaics on the walls, and proclaim it the most beautiful Mc D’s in the world, and are clearly thrilled to eat there.

Some of the TikTok videos are quite ironic, such as this one featuring a background song by Dean Martin crooning, “in Rome do as the Romans do” while the husband of the woman behind the video orders and consumes his fast food.

The opening of this first Mc D’s in Italy was met with fierce opposition. The protestors, including Italian singers, actors, politicians, and the fashion designer Valentino, spoke out against the ills of fast food and the Americanization of Italian culture. Carlo Petrini, a journalist, handed out plates of penne perfectly cooked in iron skillets to the protestors. He went on to establish the Slow Food Movement, based on his abhorrence of a Mc D’s so close to the Spanish Steps.

Protests occurred again in Rome against the fast-food chain when it broke ground in 2018 on what was to be a Super Size Me McDonald’s with a drive-through next to the Baths of Carcalla—a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The American conglomerate apparently felt the yellow arches and a drive-through would nicely enhance the third-century AD site.

Courtesy of Wanted in Rome

Locals got wind of it and massive backlash ensued. On-site vigils were held. Italy’s culture minister revoked permission. Mc D’s sued. Italy’s highest court came down on the side of cultural perseveration and the project was definitively terminated.

There were already fifty-four Mc D’s in Rome at that point. As if the company did not want to appear like a loser, it announced its intention to open 200 new locations in Italy by 2025.

For centuries, invaders have come and gone from the Italian peninsula. American conglomerates, however, might be here to stay.