When the day in Italy slowly turns into evening and the streets are bathed in a warm light, it's time for an aperitivo. Nowhere is this tradition more celebrated than in Italy, where the tasty pre-dinner drinks are an integral part of the Dolce Vita and are served with small snacks.
Although the ancient Romans are said to have drunk the aperitif, the aperitivo culture didn't really gain a foothold until the early 1800s. It was especially widespread in cities such as Turin, Milan, Florence, Venice, Rome and Naples. However, Turin is considered the birthplace of the aperitif, as Antonio Benedetto Carpano invented vermouth there in 1786, and today it is part of countless cocktails, including Negroni.
The Negroni was made in Florence in 1919 and goes back to Count Camillo. The Americano cocktail, which was popular at the time, did not have the right flavor intensity. So he asked his bartender to swap the soda in the drink for a shot of gin. The Negroni was born, the popular classic that combines gin, Campari, Vermouth and Angostura.
Another traditional Italian aperitif is the Campari, which Gaspare Campari created in 1860. The bitter liqueur consists of 60 ingredients that are kept secret but known are rhubarb, pomegranate, ginseng, citrus oil or orange peel. The Campari is the home of Milan, where it is served in numerous bars. One of these is Gaspare Campari's Bar Camparino in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. Its location in the heart of the city has been one of the top addresses in Milan since 1867 and is well worth a visit. North of Milan, in Sesto San Giovanni, the Galeria Campari with numerous exhibitions makes the hearts of fans of the ruby-red drink beat faster.
While in Milan the Campari is especially popular as a spritz with Prosecco and water, the more common version of the spritz is mixed with Aperol. The aperitif bitters were first produced in 1880 in the liqueur factory of Giuseppe Barbieri in Padua. However, the recipe for spritz did not emerge until the 1950s. With Prosecco, Aperol, mineral water and a hint of orange, this fruity cocktail has been one of the best summer cocktails for decades – and not just in Italy.
Another drink should not be missing from the group of favourites:the Bellini. The fruity sparkling wine cocktail was created in 1948 by Giuseppe Cipriani in Venice. For years he had been trying to figure out how to mix his favorite fruit, the peach, into a drink. Finally, he squeezed peaches by hand and combined the juice with sparkling wine and the refreshing Bellini was born. Cipriani named his cocktail after the Renaissance painter Giovanni Bellini because the color of the drink reminded him of Bellini's famous paintings.
Cipriani also owned Harry's Bar, which can be found west of St. Mark's Square in Venice, and to this day serves the inventor's original Bellini to his guests. The bar exudes an atmosphere of bygone days, when VIPs such as Orson Welles, Truman Capote or Peggy Guggenheim were among the regular guests.
Although the aperitivo culture is mainly celebrated in northern Italy, there are also some top locations in the south of the country to enjoy this tradition. In Naples, for example, you can have a drink with a sea breeze at the Partenope bar, which is located right on the Lungomare promenade. Caffè Wunderbar, the oldest bar in Sicilian Taormina, also has beautiful views of the coast. The day can hardly end better than with a view of the sea and a delicious aperitivo on the tongue.
Hardly any drink is better suited for this than the Garibaldi, the cocktail named after one of the "fathers" of Italy. The drink that originated in Novara is intended to celebrate the unification of northern and southern Italy in the 19th century Campari from the north and oranges from the south are used for Garibaldi and is not only a symbolic cocktail, but also a very popular cocktail among Italians.
