Pasticceria Marchesi’s signature cocktail
PHOTOGRAPHS KEVIN FAINGNAERT @kevinfaingnaert
MY KNOWLEDGE OF ITALIAN cocktail culture begins and ends with the Aperol spritz. Like many, I took up drinking these in the mid-tens, powerless to resist a marketing campaign that made the alcoholic equivalent of Tango the post-work beverage of choice. But Italy’s most famous aperitivo export belies a subtler drinks culture - and there’s nowhere better to sample it than Milan. When the clock strikes 6pm, the city collectively downs tools, its wide streets suddenly peppered with people holding drinks in traffic-light colours. By 7pm, it seems as though every Milanese citizen has a cocktail in one hand and a breadstick in the other.
Aperitivo snacks at MAG Café