An English corner in Rome

Before Babington’s Tea Rooms opened in 1893 in the Eternal City, the only place where you could get tea in Italy was from a chemist. Kevin Pilley reports.
When in Rome you must do what more Romans are doing. And have some ‘White Passion’, a very more-ish ‘Blue Lady’ and a large slice of the Commonwealth. 
When in the Eternal City, turn your back on all the froth, ignore the Arabica beans, the ‘baristas’ and their ‘moka’ machines, scorn the lattes and reserve a table, a three-tier cake stand and order some traditional, hot, buttered toast and hot, buttered, Italian-made English muffins and go for the 125th anniversary high tea at Babington’s Tea Rooms at the foot of the Spanish Steps in Piazza di Spagna.

Before Rome’s historic first tea room opened in 1893 you could only get tea in Italy from a chemist. Tea was only drunk as a cure for the flu – raffreddore. Italians only drink ‘Canarino’ lemon tea.
Italy’s obsession with coffee and kick-start breakfasts can be traced back to south Italy’s Salerno medical school and 10th to 13th century texts. But Venetian merchants didn’t start dealing in Arabic coffee beans until the 17th century. Coffee roasting (torrefazione) only really...