Starbucks, after bringing espresso to the U.S. masses, is opening its first Italy location

Italians invented espresso around the 1880s, but Starbucks brought it to the American masses in the 1990s, when it expanded from a small Seattle coffee purveyor to a national, then international, phenomenon under the guiding hand of Chairman and CEO Howard Schultz. Schultz credits a visit to Italy 35 years ago with inspiring his vision for Starbucks as a "third place" for people to gather outside work and home, but Italy isn't one of the 70 countries where Starbucks operates. That will change early next year, when Starbucks opens its first coffee shop in Milan, Schultz said Sunday.

"Starbucks history is directly linked to the way the Italians created and executed the perfect shot of espresso," he said in a news release. "Now we're going to try, with great humility and respect, to share what we've been doing and what we've learned through our first retail presence in Italy." In Milan on Sunday, Schultz told The New York Times that he's very involved with the design of the Italian stores, to be operated with the Italian retail and real estate company Percassi, and "we're going to come here with great humility.... We're not coming here to teach Italians to make coffee — nothing like that at all."

Starbucks has been a big hit in China, where it's opening 500 stores a year, and has had success in Britain, Germany, France, and even Vienna, where the coffeehouse got its start. But not everyone is convinced that Starbucks can win over its visionary birthplace. "I think young people will try it out, for curiosity," Orlando Chiari, the 82-year-old owner of storied Milan coffee bar Camparino, told The Times, "but I doubt it will become a major player in Italy.... We worship coffee in Italy, while Americans drink coffee on the go in large cups."

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