G: What is your background, and what did you do before opening Ditta Artigianale?
F:I started my career as a barista. I used to work with my dad in the south of Italy (Puglia). Then, I decided to move to Florence and continued working as a barista. Meanwhile, I started to study hospitality more seriously, focusing on bartending, mixology, wine, and, of course, coffee. My crazy love and passion for coffee began while I was studying it. I think the study was the key factor for me to fall in love with coffee.

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G:What does coffee mean to you?
F:Everything. Coffee is my life. It’s the first thing I think about in the morning (like many other people in this world :-D).

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G: Why did you decide to open the first Ditta Artigianale? Were you always planning for Ditta Artigianale to be the specialty coffee empire it is today?
F:I decided to open the first Ditta Artigianale because I wanted to share specialty coffee with people here in Italy and give them a new coffee experience. When I opened the first store, I looked at coffee businesses outside Italy and studied many examples of specialty coffee companies from around the world and their growth strategies. I found a lot of inspiration and saw the opportunity here in Italy.

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G:Ditta Artigianale Ferrucci is unique since it is the home of Ditta’s Bakery, where you make all the pastries for the Florence branches daily. How did this idea come to be?
F:The idea of the bakery was born out of our obsession with quality. We weren’t satisfied with our suppliers, and we were looking to serve the best croissants in town. That’s how the idea came up.

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G:Tell me about your collaboration with the architecture firm Archea in Ditta Artigianale Ferrucci. Are you hoping to create other similar collaborations in the future? What would be your dream partnership?
F:Creating synergy is the main secret to growing the business. You just have to find good partners, and Archea is absolutely one of them. We always strive to find good people in our lives, which in business, means finding good partners and collaborations.

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G:If you weren’t in the coffee business, what would you do?
F:No doubts... a singer or a showman :-D.

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G:Tell me about your cycling coffee tours. Is it true that you cycled 900km around Italy?
F:Totally true, and I did it with my Moka pot, hand grinder, and coffee beans. The idea is always to spread the word about coffee throughout Italy and make people more curious about it.

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G:You often travel to remote locations to work closely with coffee plantations directly. Why do you think it’s important? Tell me about an unforgettable experience from your trip.
F:Traveling to the origin of coffee helps us better understand everything behind our coffee, to get to know our coffee and how it’s produced, the philosophy of our partners and coffee producers, to create synergy that allows for the growth of a better and healthier business and build a long-term relationship. I still remember my first trip to Honduras, where I met amazing people and made new friends. They hosted me on the farm where I had the chance to work for a week and understand how hard life on the farm is every day. This helped me understand the value of every single cup we serve. An experience I would recommend to anyone who wants to understand more about coffee and all the effort behind it.

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G:What’s next for Ditta Artigianale?
F: I hope to see Ditta Artigianale in every city in Italy. I dream of changing the approach to hospitality in the coffee shop sector and writing another glorious chapter in the history of Italian coffee.