Did you know...
Renato Bialetti was not the inventor of the mocha expresso maker, his father Alfonso did. He was an engineer by trade and in 1933 worked with Luigi De Ponti and they invented the mocha expresso maker. But Renato took this invention to the world. In 1947, he took over the Bialetti Company and he sold 70,000 mocha pots. He turned the octagonal pot into a world-wide Italian symbol and he expanded the company, selling more than 300 million internationally. When Renato Bialetti passed away at age 93, his three children decided to honor him by burying his ashes in a large replica of the pot he made famous and the priest blessed the pot in his hometown of Carole in Piemonte!