Editorial
Rome invented the long evening, and the aperitivo is its overture. The hour between work and dinner belongs to a spritz or a glass of Frascati and a few small plates, taken standing in a piazza or sitting under an awning as the light goes gold. The ritual runs older than the cocktail itself, rooted in the Roman habit of the passeggiata, the evening walk. We mapped the nine rooms where the city does it best.
Across the river the lanes fill first, and the aperitivo spills from doorways onto the cobbles.
In the centro storico the ritual turns to wine, poured in rooms that have served the same blocks for a century.
For the full Trastevere version, start at Baylon or Bar San Calisto's livelier neighbours and let the piazza do the work. For wine over a spritz, the centro storico rooms like Il Goccetto pour the city's oldest version of the hour. None of this needs a reservation, since the aperitivo is meant to be wandered into. Arrive around seven, order a spritz or a glass of white, and let dinner wait.
Mei-Lin Zhao writes about the history and culture of city drinking. She traces each room back to its lineage, its music, and the neighbourhood that shaped it.