Come si chiamano questi contenitori in italiano

What is the difference between “tazza” and “tazzina” in Italian?

Order a coffee at an Italian bar and it arrives in a tazzina, not a tazza. The two words look like the same thing in different sizes, and that is exactly the point: Italian builds the small espresso cup by adding the diminutive ending -ina to tazza, so the word physically shrinks along with the cup. The full-size tazza is for tea, milk or a long breakfast coffee; the tazzina is the little vessel for a quick espresso at the counter.

The suffix -ino / -ina is one of Italian’s most productive tools: cucchiaio → cucchiaino (teaspoon), panino (little bread), bambino (little one). Learning to hear it turns one known word into several. Note the gender stays feminine: una tazza → una tazzina. There is also a charming folk story that the espresso cup is named after a designer called Tazzini — debated, and not needed: the plain diminutive reading is enough.