Until this morning, the Belconnen suburb of Page had no café. One opened this morning – in an aged-care home.

Little Italy Village Café opened at Villaggio Sant’ Antonio in what the aged-care provider believes is an Australian first: a public café on the outside of an aged care home, designed to serve both residents and the neighbourhood.

“We’re really working hard to make it a place where residents can get to know the local community and vice versa,” Villaggio Sant’ Antonio CEO Giulia Jones said.

The café promises buon cibo, buon caffè e buoni amici – cioè, per gli anglofoni, “good food, good coffee, and good friends”.

Hundreds of people attended the opening this morning. A ribbon strung between giant tomato tins was ceremonially cut; volunteers made more than 400 coffees; and an accordion player regaled the crowd.

“We will become the coffee shop for Page, and the whole community will come here,” Ms Jones said. “I can’t wait. It’s very exciting.”

Little Italy is the first site in the Foundation for Social Health’s new Third Spaces network, which aims to tackle loneliness by creating places where social connection can happen naturally.

The foundation hopes such places will address both the separation of older Australians from everyday community life and growing levels of loneliness in the wider population. One in three Australians – and 40 per cent of Canberrans – reports being lonely.

“Loneliness isn’t something we can solve by simply telling lonely people to go out and make friends,” CEO Melanie Wilde said.

“We need to create the conditions that make connection easier – places where people can show up regularly, encounter one another and gradually build relationships.”

“Aged care is probably the first place people get lonely in the community because they’re separated in a way from the community because of their physical or mental needs,” Ms Jones said.

“They don’t see young children very often. They don’t see families and prams and kids on bikes. And I want all of that to be accessible to the residents.”

Ms Jones hopes the café will bring that everyday activity through the Villaggio’s doors. A parent at home alone with a baby might come down for coffee and sit with one of the residents. Among them are a former chaplain who enjoys connecting people; a woman who makes bouquets from the flowers growing around the Villaggio; residents playing Italian cards; and others who simply enjoy a long chat.

“We need to connect the community to each other, so that we don’t have to deal with as much loneliness and mental breakdown,” Ms Jones said. “People need somewhere to feel like they’re seen; it’s the same with my residents. So it’s a win-win.”

The café is inspired by Italian village centres, where people of different generations encounter one another as part of daily life.

“Nothing to me speaks more about community connectivity,” Ms Jones said. “In a small Italian village, right in the middle of the town are a fountain, a café, and a church. Everyone’s catered to, from the puppies to the mums to the nonne.

“Rather than having to make an appointment, you can just walk out your door. That’s the ultimate form of social connection.”

The Villaggio already has a fountain and a chapel; the café completes the village, Ms Jones said.

It also has a weekly intergenerational playgroup, volunteers, and games of Italian cards on Sundays.

But the café also has a commercial purpose: Ms Jones said aged care was expensive, particularly for a medium-sized provider operating from a single site, and the Villaggio needed to diversify its income.

The café serves cakes, pies, chicken sausage rolls, and scones made on site, as well as an ‘Italian sanguice’ – a ciabatta roll with preserved meats, cheese, and olive oil.

And, of course, coffee.

“You couldn’t be proud of yourself if you’re an Italian facility without good coffee!” Ms Jones said.

Little Italy Village Café will open from 7am to 11am seven days a week. Opening hours could be longer if demand warrants it. The Villaggio is also considering using its kitchen to sell frozen family meals to the wider community.