Aperitivo in Italy: the sacred hour before the meal

An aperitivo on the canal in Milan. ^{_{Photo: V. Drozdova on. Pexels.com}}

It's 6 pm in Milan, Bologna and Palermo. The offices are emptying, the bars are filling up.

Somewhere between the end of the day and Dinner something happens that Italians have been celebrating with almost religious solemnity for more than 200 years: the aperitivo. The tables get fuller, the voices get louder, the glasses clink. What begins now lasts around two hours and is as indispensable for most Italians as dinner itself: the aperitivo.

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The word comes from the Latin aperire - to open. The stomach should open up, the evening should unfold, the conversation anyway. The story begins in Turin in 1786, when Antonio Benedetto Carpano launched his vermouth on the market and unintentionally invented a national ritual. Since then, anyone who starts dinner without an aperitivo has misunderstood something.

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Venice has found its own way. The Spritz has been around since Austrian soldiers added water to the local wine in the 19th century. Today it can be found in every bar: Aperol or Campari, Prosecco, a sip of mineral water, an olive. Accompanied by cicchetti - small bites on white bread topped with anchovies, bacalà or prawns. In Naples and on Sicily the bar puts olives, taralli or bruschetta on the table as an aperitif. Without anyone asking or paying extra for them. People drink Limoncello Spritz, local herbal liqueurs or a glass of Primitivo.

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The whole world knows Aperol Spritz. Campari Soda is the more bitter version. The Negroni combines Campari, gin and vermouth. And the Sbagliato is a Negroni where someone accidentally poured Prosecco into the glass instead of gin - sbagliato simply means: „done wrong“. Those who don't drink alcohol take crodino, a bitter orange drink that is almost as common in Italy as anything else. The aperitivo lasts between 45 minutes and two hours. It does not replace a meal, it prepares it. If you're not hungry afterwards, you've eaten too much. By 9 pm at the latest, the bar is empty again. Italy sits down at the table. The actual event begins.

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