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This is a typical Italian tradition and it’s a pre-meal drink and snack between 6 pm and 9 pm. If you walk in an Italian bar around that time you will most definitely see people in groups chatting and laughing, having a drink and some nibbles, which always come free!!
These type of snacks are called stuzzichini and they can be a variety of things, sometimes you get so many they could be eaten in place of dinner. Can you imagine going to Wetherspoons, ordering a beer and getting free snacks??
Me neither.
Sometimes you might pay an extra small fee for the snacks but usually, you always get a few for free. For example, if you go to some fancy bar in Milan, it would be a lot more expensive than going to someplace in the south of the peninsula, where the snacks would come with the drinks anyway.
The expression we use is fare l’aperitivo (to do an aperitivo) and it’s something that goes far beyond the act of merely drinking or eating a little something.
The tradition was born in 1786 when Antonio Benedetto Carpano, an Italian distiller, invented Vermouth; an aromatized white wine with 30 herbs and spices. The actual expression though was introduced in the first decades of ‘900 with the mass production of Seltz and sodas
Drinks
There is of course a vast selection of drinks and cocktails you can have and we’ll go through the most famous Italian ones, you’ve probably heard of a few yourself too already.
You will never see vino missing during an aperitivo. Vino is wine in English and the most common one during this tradition is Prosecco, which is a type of champagne, usually fizzy.
White, rosé and dry are the ones that are ordered the most but also Marsala, Porto and Sherry. Famous bitters like Campari and Aperol are the most common ones, mixed with some soda. There are also Crodino, Biancosarti, Cynar, Rabarbaro, Spritz.
You have probably heard of the negroni, the most famous classic Italian cocktail (in the photo on the left) or the prosegroni, which is a negroni mixed with prosecco. Of course there are also beers, Peroni and Moretti are the most known ones.
Stuzzichini – the nibbles
We have talked a little bit about drinks, now let’s look into the stuzzichini, the nibbles.
In some places, you get so many of them they could almost replace your main meal. The snacks may vary from north to south, depending on local specialities. If you go for an aperitivo in Milan for example, you might get more fancy snacks likes these below:
Some other places instead would just have crisps, grissini, peanuts and olives. It mostly depends on what the bar has. Sometimes they might have pizzas which they then cut up in smaller slices and serve it as a nibble for an aperitivo. The photo on the left is actually from a local Italian bar in my city, Mama’s Food & Café, they also make the best cappuccino in my opinion.
Other common stuzzichini are pizzette rosse, which are small round pizzas usually with mozzarella and tomato sauce; cornetti salati, mini cornetti usually with a savoury filling, such as salami, tuna, cheese; taralli, these are savoury snacks with a texture a little like breadsticks or pretzels and they are typical of the south of Italy; tramezzini, triangular sandwiches usually with tuna, salmon, ham or tomatoes and cheese; rustici, puff pastry savoury snacks with ricotta and spinach filling, eggs and ham or cheese.
Below in the photo from Mama’s Food & Café you can see a typical selection of stuzzichini; crisps, rustici and cornetti salati.
Going for an aperitivo in Italy is a full-on experience, it’s not only a way of getting free nibbles. It’s a get-together with friends, relatives or family… Maybe even have a chat with some strangers you’ve just met. It’s an art.
We also use the expression apericena, which is an aperitivo literally before dinner. You might also hear us saying ”andiamo a fare ape”, where ape is an abbreviation for aperitivo but as a word it also means ”bee”, obviously it depends on the context.
Another photo featuring the aperitivo in Mama’s.
If you ever end up in Italy, make sure to experience our aperitivo, you won’t regret it! Check out the podcast of the blog as well to hear the pronunciation of the words and some extra few things about this ‘Italian ritual’.
Check out this Pinterest board for more photos! https://www.pinterest.co.uk/italianando/discover-italian-culture/the-italian-aperitivo/
A presto,
Francesca
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