Among the not a few “blunders” made by Napoleon Bonaparte was, in 1806, blocking the import of all those products that came from rival England and all its colonies to be sold on the European continent. These included fine English cloth, cotton, but also sugar and even coffee…
Imagine the surge in prices that such items suddenly suffered! The general also ordered that any kind of merchandise that came from England was unearthed in the warehouses of the stores to be immediately confiscated and burned. This also happened in Milan-manybonfires were set up in Piazza dei Mercanti in front of an obviously enraged crowd. It was on that occasion that the use of chicory as a coffee substitute became widespread: its leaves were eaten as a salad and its roots were roasted.
Even today, the curious name of Pond Street reminds us of this! The marble blocks for the Cathedral were marked with the now famous inscription a.u.f. Thanks to this acronym, everyone knew that those barges were exempt from paying duties and taxes, since, precisely, they carried marble “ad usum fabricae,” that is, for the construction of the Milanese Cathedral. And until not so long ago, the frequent expression “a ufo” in fact meant “without paying,” “a sbafo,” “a scrocco”!
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