6 7 a Moving Story About Immigrants from a Country That Has Always Been
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A moving story about immigrants from a country that has always been a magnet for immigrants, with Joe and Lorenzo Di Donato as our wonderful hosts. All in all, an ideal combination for a very special kind of city portrait: My Toronto Books and films often dramatize Canada’s wide-open spaces: the unspoilt natural environment, the untamed wilderness. Indeed, in terms of area, the country is the second-largest in the world. And at the same time, one of the most sparsely populated. Statistically speaking, just under four inhabitants share one square kilometre of land between them. Admittedly, in YYZ (Toronto airport’s interna- tional code), where we have just safely landed, things look different. Completely different. Toronto is a fascinating global metropolis, enthused Joe and Lorenzo Di Donato, when they persuaded us to pay them a visit. During our descent to the city, with its 2.6 million population, the view from the airplane window certainly looked very promising. The clock shows noon as we enjoy the feeling of terra firma under our feet after eight-and-a-half hours above the clouds. We enter the terminal to a typically warm Italian welcome from our hosts. 6 7 You need a good start to the day, advise Joe and Lorenzo, when they perfect coffee, coupled with a vision for giving coffee spe cialities their pick us up next morn ing in the hotel lobby. And even before we can rightful place in a new world, inspired our father to estab lish his own think about breakfast, we find ourselves whisked to an imposing business specializing in the import of coffee machines. The start was building at 672 Dupont Street. ‘For ten years, starting in 1915, Henry pretty tough: Dad’s only customers were immigrants who were open- Ford made cars here, including the legendary Model T,’ says Joe, giv- ing small cafés, bakeries and restaurants where they could offer Italian- ing us a hint of the venerable old building’s proud heritage. Today, it style coffee. He began supplying restaurants, made him self a name is home to, among other things, the Faema Caffè, where we settle in the gastronomic sector and established a business em pire that en- down in a cosy corner to study the delicious items on the menu. Eggs abled him to buy this building as his head office.’ We are suitably Benedict and a couple of beautifully decorated cappuccinos give us impressed, and grin as Joe takes up the story. ‘It was Dad who brought a substantial foundation that would have been the envy of anyone coffee specialties to Canadian restau rants, and our plan is to do the operating a conveyor belt here 100 years ago. same as him in households – with automatic machines from JURA.’ Needless to say, we pepper Joe and Lorenzo with questions. We’re keen A visit to their flagship store shows that the Di Donatos are well on the to know what is so special about this old, lovingly renovated automo- way to achieving their goal: housed in the same building, it covers a bile factory. Lorenzo obliges with an abridged version of the Di Donato gigantic 20,000 square feet (around 1860 sq.m). With ‘the biggest family history. ‘Our father, Michael, originally came from Avellino in coffee show room in Canada’, confirms Lorenzo, which we had already Italy. After the war, the domestic labour market there was so dried up suspected. Displayed in such stylish surroundings, the JURA range is that he decided to emigrate and try his luck in Canada. He took with an enormous hit with Canadian coffee lovers. At the centre of the him an espresso machine, a shrewd business acumen and the hope of room, we encounter a wonderful reminder of the building’s original a better life. In Toronto, he was met with a community of immigrants purpose: a Model T Ford. ‘Come along,’ Joe tells us, a mischievous who were pining for their roots. A lousy cup of cof fee in spired our glint in his eyes. We ride the elevator to the roof. ‘A century ago, this father to turn Toronto’s coffee scene upside down. It was clear to him was Ford's test circuit,’ Lorenzo explains. We ask ourselves whether that the country was missing what Europeans had been enjoying for Ford’s madcap test-drivers back then enjoyed the breath taking view years: namely, top-quality espresso and cappuccino. His passion for of the city as much as we are doing right now. 8 9 After what must be one of Toronto’s best-kept secrets, we head for a necks. But that’s forgotten in a trice when we are bombarded by major tourist hotspot. ‘Since the mid-1960s, Nathan Phillips Square the sights, sounds and smells of the amazing displays and store has been one of Toronto’s urban plazas. It was named after one of windows. ‘I can resist everything but temptation,’ wrote the great the most popular mayors in the city’s history and is a place where Oscar Wilde. We have probably never better understood what he locals and tourists run into one another – in winter they go ice- meant than now. skating and in summer they simply stroll around,’ says Joe, adding more background information. And Lorenzo adds: ‘The Square com- Flooded with sensations, but still happily smiling, we follow Joe and bines history with the modern. Bordering it, you’ll find the old city Lorenzo across the street to what is probably the liveliest and most hall with its eye-catching clock tower as well as the New City Hall. popular part of downtown Toronto, Yonge-Dundas Square. We imme- The latter, incidentally, was the work of functionalist Finnish archi- diately feel reminded of Times Square in New York: gigantic screens tect, Viljo Revel.’ They both urge us strongly to revisit the Square in and neon lights, wherever you look. Crowds of people, bicycles, the evening after dusk, when the illuminated fountain and a gigan- scooters, cars, trucks and buses thronging through the narrow space tic, lit-up logo displaying the word Toronto give the entire setting an as if protagonists in a finely choreographed ballet directed solely by irresistible magic. We make a mental note to do just that. traffic lights. Lorenzo’s voice stops us in our tracks: ‘Yonge-Dundas Square is the city’s nervous centre. You can feel the pulse of its cul- Next, we take a leisurely stroll up Bay Street to the CF Toronto Eaton tural life at its best. It ranges from concerts and theatre, from cinema Centre, a shrine to consumerism that leaves no wish unfulfilled. Wi- to art exhibitions: and it’s all world class.’ Our guests chuckle when th over 250 businesses under one roof, it attracts no fewer than 50 they see our eyes, wide open with amazement – a little like children million shoppers every year. ‘The mall is particularly popular during under a Christmas tree – at the incredible wealth of things on offer. the Christmas season because visitors flock in to admire the biggest At this point, Joe suggests a complete change of perspective. ‘We’ve Christmas tree in Canada,’ Joe tells us. ‘It’s around 100 feet – or over reserved a table at the CN Tower. What do you say to a drink before 30 metres – high.’ Simply looking upward to work out how its im- dinner?’ In athletics, the speed at which we nod our agreement would mense height would look here in the atrium gives us slightly stiff probably count as a false start. 10 11 Slender, elegant and of monumental height, the needle-like Although there is absolutely no rational reason for us not to construction towers up over the city and dominates its sky- step out onto the solid glass elements, the 442 metres of line. In 2009, its 553 metres assured it of its position as the nothingness between us and the ground below inevitably highest television mast in the world. ‘Our CN Tower is one of cause a massive spike in our adrenalin levels. Hesitatingly, we the Seven Wonders of the Modern World,’ enthuses Joe on venture a first step. Looking downwards, we have the queasy the way to the top, as we pull a series of weird faces trying to feeling that we are flying, as if we are, hovering above the deal with the change in altitude and pressure. The elevator abyss. doors open to reveal a sensational view. The restaurant re- volves through 360° and, at 351 metres above the ground, ‘OK, you guys have earned yourselves a special dinner,’ our has its place in the Guinness Book of World Records. We take hosts agree. They drive us through the city to the Casa Loma, our seats and watch the metropolis glide slowly and evenly a mind-blowing medieval-style castle built in the nineteen- past us down below. At this point, the sommelier calls for our tens. ‘It was the home of the man who built it, Sir Henry Pel- attention. His wine list is almost as impressive as the view. latt, who had a rather chequered history. During the Roaring ‘We have over 9000 bottles in the cellar,’ reveals our wine Twenties, socialites would meet up there for wild parties to waiter, although at the word cellar he raises his left eyebrow the accompaniment of the Casa Loma Orchestra’s big band and gives us an arch grin. ‘The highest cellar in the world ...?’ sound. A syndicate from New York wanted to buy it and turn we murmur.