Moretta or the Morettas?

Some anecdotes and curious things about the Moretta of Fano, an expresso coffee spiked with a mix of liquors, sugar and lemon peel of which there are countless versions.

Those who read me know I am from Fano and Fano is also the birthplace of the Moretta: an expresso coffee spiked with a mix of liquors, sugar and lemon peel. While this may seem simple, it is anything but. The fact is that there are a host of interpretations, claims of paternity, secret recipes and false hypotheses claiming it did not originate in Fano. Added to this there is the perpetual debate over which bar or restaurant makes the best Moretta.

This all has nothing to do with economics but pride and local rivalry within the city and neighboring cities and towns. I am convinced that very few Fano natives really know its true, documented and precise history. That is at least until new evidence comes to light, new documents and sources.

Although I am an amateur historian the city’s customs and traditions, I must admit that up until a few months ago I lived under a shadow of misconception. Then at the beginning of August I returned to Fano for an interesting and demanding two-day tasting dedicated to Bianchello del Metauro DOC and during these two days I naturally, at the end of a meal, always had a Moretta. Some were excellent, others were less so, as is always the case. And I had them in the port district because, I thought, this is where I would find the original and best version. But deep down inside some questions kept nagging at: who invented it? When? Where?

In order to find answers, I spoke with Marcello di Piazza, who hosted me during the two-day stay, and he kept saying that we’d have to ask Colombo, the owner of Bar Berto, which was inside the city itself and not in the port district. And this was the first red flag: what could someone from the city know about something that everybody knows is typical to the Port and Fano’s fishermen? But the seed of doubt was planted and so Marcello called him to set up a meeting in the early afternoon.

It is important to understand that to ask certain people certain questions can be risky. In this case there was no risk any possible physical harm but one of being told to go to that proverbial place in no uncertain terms. And the person in question, Colombo, was of a certain age and the historic owner of a very famous bar in the city, a role his parents held before him, which was renowned for serving a superlative Moretta.

After we introduced ourselves, I began to ask for some historical background on the Moretta. But then atmosphere began to get heavy when he found out that one of us three was a Pesaro native and, what’s more, it went from bad to worse when I said that a friend of mine, an historian from Pesaro, claimed the Moretta actually originated in Pesaro! Those in the bar, who had eavesdropped on my interview, shared his indignation and it was not a pretty picture. But things began to calm down when I asked Colombo if I could taste his Moretta. And while his wife prepared this sacred nectar, Colombo went behind the bar and came back with a gift, a little book entitled: “The Moretta of Fano” by Gianni Volpe, published by the Pesaro and Urbino Confcommercio retailers’ association. It was a lovely publication, the result of authentic archival research, very well-documented, a shining light on the history of the Moretta, without which this article would have been much poorer.

The author and Colombo were in total agreement: the Moretta coffee was invented a stone’s throw from Bar Berto, in what at the time was the Caffè Cavour of Giuseppe Armanni, also known as Trentin. In fact, documents from January 1908 showed that he publicized his bar as offering “Excellent Rum Moretta”. Thus it was not born in the port district but within the city walls. In fact, Colombo claimed that it did not make to the port until much later but those shrewd port natives adopted it and claimed it was their invention. And, in fact, even I, before this meeting, believed it to be an invention of Fano fishermen.

The book in question also had an anecdote that highlighted how much local rivalry existed around the Moretta. In 1984, Pope John Paul II visited Fano and had lunch at the port, surrounded by its fishermen and boat owners. When the time came to offer him a Moretta, a dispute erupted over whose version he should have. There were two candidates, one made by a Communist and the other by a Christian Democrat. In the end, it was decided to offer him both, side by side on a tray in anonymous containers. He selected the “Communist” one, “to the joy of Amati and the desperation of Tebaldi”.

Curiously, the lunch menu was written in Latin and the Moretta was described as “Nigella – potatiuncula (potions calidae cum anisio, cafeo, coniaco, rum et cum cortice limonis)”.

As for the Moretta of Bar Berto, it was, in fact, excellent, well-balanced, alcoholic, not too sweet and just rough enough. A true delicacy. Every bar, every restaurant offers its own version, some very different from each other. But those made according to the traditional recipe are instantly recognizable: they are not rough, not too sweet and are actually quite smooth. They go straight to the heart of those looking for answers. In the end, I think we can say there is not just one Moretta but different Morettas. It is now up to you to find the best, the one you like the best, be it in Fano proper, be it at the port. You can even try buying the ingredients and making it at home. But in the end, you’ll find that for a perfect Fano Moretta you have to have go to Fano and it will be better yet after a hearty meal based on Brodetto alla Fanese.