Italian Bar Culture 101

Everything you need to know about small-town Italian bar culture - eating, drinking, and socializing - from cappuccino to Campari spritz, from pastry to panini. As always in our little chats, we'll recall a few funny or quirky anecdotes about our experience traveling and living here in Italy. 

Want to know more about us and our travel services? Find us at:

www.LittleRoadsEurope.com

www.facebook.com/LittleRoadsEurope

We craft small-town driving itineraries for travelers to Italy, Ireland and Scotland.

And our "alter-egos" as musicians:

www.OrsiniVirtuosi.it

Transcript

Bar notes for podcast

Note: This is not a proper transcript, but rather the show notes we write in advance to prepare for the episode 

INTRO: 

Welcome to Little Roads Unfiltered: Italy and Beyond

Today we’re talking about Italian bars and bar culture… Among other things, we’ll discuss:

Why NOT to pay with a 20; 

Why it is totally legit to bring a baby to the bar;

and What are our favorite summertime Italian bar drinks 

[ROLL MUSIC]

[fade music to 20%]

This is Matt Walker

…and I’m Zeneba Bowers - 

We’re recording while sitting on the terrace of our tiny home in Italy - so you’ll get a sense of the sounds of life in our little town. We want this to be more like a casual conversion with us, rather than a scripted studio session - complete with church bells, cats meowing, motor scooters and trains and the town’s daily siren, and maybe the occasional clink of our drinks. 

“ … we’ll be talking about all things bar, in today’s unedited chat - here on Little Roads Unfiltered: Italy and Beyond.”

[Music up then fade out]

For those of you who don’t know us: We are professional musicians and also travel writers and consultants, living and working here in Italy for the past 6 years. 

If you want to learn more about us and our lives, you can find us on our website LittleRoadsEurope..com, on our socials, and now here on our new podcast, which we’re going to do unedited, as if you’re sitting here chatting with us - 

…and by the way, we hope you like our intro music - that was us! Since we’re musicians working here in Italy, we thought it would make sense to arrange and perform it ourselves

(Matt is a composer and arranger as well as … an aficionado of prosecco and other popular Italian bar drinks - which brings us to our topic today:

So let’s get to talking a bit about the bar scene in Italy.

We are mostly talking about bars in small towns, not in big cities

Bars open from very early in the morning, often until late at night. Places to gather for families, workers, friends. Even though they are private, it feels like publicly owned space 

“I’m not going to take my baby to a bar, Zen”….yes you are! 

traveling with baby or small child, bars are great, Lots of non alcoholic drinks. 

Bar Basics

Where to sit 

Big/medium cities: sit down service vs. standing at bar. Often not true in small towns. 

Extra high rates for places on or near tourist attractions

(Venice in 1995, paid $34 for a cappuccino and piece of cake on St. Mark Square, thought I was going to stroke out because I had no idea there was a price difference)

Drinks: 

Coffee: 

Lots of blogs say “Bar Rules” but really the only rules are be nice, and pay with small change 

Caffe means espresso, but you can also say espresso. Better not to say Ex-presso. Used to be €1 for an espresso, now €1.20, more in big towns. 

Ministry of Agriculture & Foods puts controls on price of espresso consumed standing at the bar

Istituto Nazionale Espresso Italiano is an independent body regulating espresso standards

creamy top

[BTW: Don’t assume that if you don’t like espresso in the US that you won’t like it here]

Cappuccino, which are served in a smallish size cup. A little milk, milk foam. May ask to top with cinnamon or cocoa, but that is not common

"No, don’t drink Cappuccino after 11am", but only because milk interferes with digestion. Do not do anything to mess up your lunch! But you can get a cappuccino anytime. Better option, with no side eye, ask for macchiato Our Macchiato order, €2.50 

STORY: Friends at dinner who were in Italy for first time: ordered cappuccino after dinner - Here’s your breakfast!

Latte vs. caffe latte 

Milk: Different types of milk alternatives (soy, nut, even skim) aren’t really available in smaller towns 

Caffe Americano will often be offered right away, which is just espresso and hot water. 

Tea also available

Summer: Caffe Shakerato: ice, espresso, sugar. Can ask without sugar. Served in fancier glasses, perfect summertime pick me up. FAVORITE DRINK

Winter: Hot cocoa - cioccolato caldo - winter drink, thick like pudding

Caffe corretto (sometimes “corrected" w sambuca rather than grappa)

Can also get espresso and grappa simultaneously

Non-alcoholic drinks:

Lemon soda (and Oran-soda), Fanta (not Cheeto-orange), fruit juices, Coke - NO Dr Pepper etc - 

Specialty sodas - Chinotto, Cedrata (both more on bitter side)

- opportunity to try different things

- Crodino (Campari flavor), San Bitter (aperol type)

“Esta thè” - iced tea, lemon or peach flavor, very sweet

Food in bars: 

Bars are also a place to get food too, at any hour of the day.

Morning - Pastries, some savory stuff - 

Look for regional things like Maritozzo, Margheretine

Late morning into afternoon - sandwiches, tramezzini, other crunchy snacks

— “ADVERTISEMENT” BREAK —

SIREN INTERRUPTION: We mentioned that you’d hear the town’s siren - we’ll talk about that in a later episode. But:

That reminds me that we need to stop for a word from our sponsor - - - - 

- - - wait, we don’t have any sponsors - and we’re not looking for any either, we want to keep this an ad-free show.

So today’s show is brought to you by: A Good Idea. 

And today’s Good Idea is: 

Take a minute to check the batteries in your smoke detectors and CO2 detectors in your home.

That’s it.

So anyway, where were we?

Alcohol drinks

Common to see people drinking wine or beer at 11 or 12 noon

NOT common to see anyone acting drunk at all

BTW: Drunk driving is NOT a thing to do - organize activity accordingly

Wine - if you are a wine enthusiast, maybe look for enoteca

Otherwise: Matt always likes to get prosecco, esp on tap :)

Beer - often 1 tap w Peroni or other German style yellow beer

Recent uptick in craft brews but usually bottles or cans only

[Birreria - sometimes themed as pubs … Birrificio - local brews at source] very interesting things like the beer made from grapes

Difference between "American bar" and the bar here

Cocktails: 

Aperitivo hour: 

Small town bar - drinks come w snacks, included in price (€5-8 per drink, sometimes less)

Some snack plates have tons of snacks, little sandwiches, pizza pieces, etc

(in cities, snacks are often extra €€€)

Newer thing: APERI-CENA: Sometimes need reservation, nicer/fancier snacks

Spritz - Campari or aperol, sometimes limoncello

Good way to get ice - Italians use ice sparingly due to concerns of digestion

Negroni - stronger drink

G&T possible

Moscow mule more common

Cosmopolitan, Bloody Mary are hard to find - more in bigger towns

Martini … ? possibly

Sometimes specialty cocktail bars, usually w list of offerings

Digestivi - after dinner digestive liqueurs

grappa, limoncello, amaro

White grappa vs grappa barricata 

Herbal amaro 

STORY: composer trying Cynar for first time

When to pay, how to pay 

Order, then drink, then pay

Cash is best

Credit cards only theoretically

STORY: Paying 2 espressos w €20 note, wine guys crowd sourced the change

OUTRO: 

I think that’s a good place to wrap it up here - we hope you enjoyed joining us for our little Bar Chat!

We’ll be talking about a wide variety of topics here on this podcast, from travel tips to slice-of-life stories - we’ll post a new episode every Tuesday. 

So catch us next time - we’ll see you down the Little Roads