Curious but provocative, Italians react to the country's first Starbucks

Since its debut in Seattle in the early 1970s, Starbucks has opened stores around the world, including in European countries where coffee culture was already well established. But the coffee-centered land that helped the founder Howard Schultz shape the character of the chain in the first place.

That changed this week when Starbucks opened its first Italian site in Milan.

"It's for tourists." Go, it's for tourists, "said Emanuele Barozzi, of Milan. "It will not become my cafeteria!" he proclaimed.

Inside, Starbucks has turned a former post office into a 25,000 square foot roaster, reports Seth Doane of CBS News. This is a testing ground for ideas like the use of liquid nitrogen to freeze ice for an affogato and an elaborate attempt to seduce the country that invented it. espresso.

This is called a Starbucks, but it does not look like any Starbucks in which you were before. It's really more of a coffee theme park.

They gave up some of the most "American" preparations like Frappuccino – but they to have Imported American price, high for Italy.

At the Camparino café in Milan, where Schultz was inspired, they have been preparing an espresso for a century. The customers there were not impressed by the American import.

Analisa Cataneo replied, "No, we are Italian, we invented coffee and pizzas."

Starbucks has struggled and closed stores in other coffee-growing countries, including Australia, New Zealand and Israel. To succeed in Italy, he will certainly need more than his first location. Fifteen minutes to the Starbucks roaster and the former skeptical Italian, Emanuele Barozzi, is a convert.

"You see the Brazilian coffee grilled in this huge machine and you drink it, it is the complete experience. Incredible, "said Barozzi. I have completely changed my mind. "