An Aperitivo | Lifestyle

The literal meaning to an aperitivo is an aperitif, which is basically an alcoholic drink to stimulate the palette before a meal. In Italy, they love an aperitivo, which is what we do over in the UK, quite often we’d go out for drinks after work or go to a bar before go out for dinner but today I really wanted to talk about the differences.

Most places in Florence have a Happy Hour, but it’s not like the UK where it’s two for one cocktails or half price drinks, what this actually means is that the price of the drinks are slightly more expensive but you also get food with your drink. This food is mainly nibbles and small little dishes but there is a lot of it. I thought this was a really interesting concept, what I have noticed is the relationship with alcohol very different to the UK and even mine to an extent. Normally I’d just walk into a bar order a glass of wine, not too fussed about what kind, especially when it came to red wine you go out to get a bit drunk and have a laugh. Whereas here, you take you time to decide what wine you may like, the wine menus aren't massively long instead they are a carefully selected to appear on the menu.

In the picture above we were at bar called il Santino which genuinely was the cutest little wine place I’ve ever seen, but was tiny, it also had an amazing selection of meats and cheeses. We went here before going for dinner just to have a couple of glasses of wine, the thing I really loved about this place was that each glass of wine you order there is a little piece of bread that comes with it topped with a meat, each bread is decided dependent on your wine choice. How wonderful is that? I really like the idea that the wine is linked to your food, it really pairs everything together and makes it much more of an experience as opposed to just going for a drink. We ordered two glasses of wine each at this place the first bread we got had like a salted beef tartar that was delicious and the second, as you can see was salmon. I’m in heaven over here, the 4 main things I love, cold meats, cheese, bread and wine, what more could a gal want?

Also I’ve noticed that I’ve started to slow down with the wine I’m drinking and overall enjoy it more. I’ve also become quite accustomed to Chianti, which is a very typical Tuscan wine very rich in flavour but some people find it quite heavy. That’s not to say I don’t get drunk, I do, but it’s really good to have a bit of food there as well.

I love a happy hour but now, I think I’m starting to prefer the Italian Happy Hour more than the UK one.

What’s your favourite wine to drink?