ITALY - PADOVA
As a student of the Università degli Studi di Padova I’m directly located in the middle of the Veneto region, home to the famous and widely popular drink named Aperol Spritz.
Prior to going to Padova, I just knew that Aperol Spritz was a light orange cocktail which was usually quite expensive to order in fancy bars. After going to Padova though it kind of surprised me how many “regular” and ERASMUS students and also how frequently students literally flooded “bars” (the term in Italy for what we would call a Café in the rest of the world) during lunchbreaks and after classes to get a “Spritz” and relax with their colleagues at tables outside at Piazzas and Piazzales all across the city. As a German who is quite familiar with the “drinking culture” in my home country, I was absolutely surprised about this Venetian drinking habit, especially the drink being “Spritz” rather than a simple beer or wine. Prior to seeing and witnessing this I assumed that Italians would meet up at evenings around 9 p.m. at wine bars and enjoy some quality red wine, yet Padova seems to prefer the “Spritz” a lot more than wine.
As you read this you might ask yourself, what actually an Aperol Spritz is exactly. Well, the Spritz is a mixture drink made from either prosecco or white wine mixed with water and liqueur. In the Veneto region especially it is quite common to mix regional white wine or prosecco (depending from bar to bar) with water and either Aperol, Campari or both of these all together (called “mixto”). To go even deeper, Aperol is an orange-looking, bitter and fruity liqueur with is more commonly associated with the Spritz than Campari, which is a red-looking and bitter liqueur. Spritz has its origins in North Italy, in particular when Austrian soldiers were stationed there. The Austrian soldiers only got Venetian wine during that time at first, which they didn’t seem to enjoy since the alcohol seemed too strong for them. So, these soldiers decided to mix the wine with water, which makes it the first Spritz in history. Couple decades later, the first “modern” Aperol Spritz was created in 1919 by the Barbieri brothers in Padova. The popularity of the Spritz took off in the 1950s, when Venice and the region as a whole became the worldwide focus point for fashion and lifestyle as part of “la dolce vita”. Over time, it became one of the most popular cocktails around Italy and even the world.
As mentioned previously, I was quite surprised by the frequency of the students drinking Spritz. So, as curious about the Italian culture as I am, I had to find out how Spritz tastes and be part of that culture as well. The taste of my first spritz, in this case the Aperol Spritz, was really good. As I also tasted the other variants of this delicious drink I was quite sure that Aperol Spritz with its fruitier flavor was absolutely my personal favorite out of three options. Also, regarding the culture, drinking a Spritz with your colleagues and with other students (ERASMUS and local) serves as an ideal icebreaker to get to know each other. Also, while drinking Spritz, it makes it certainly easier to explore the beautiful spots around the city like the Piazza dei Signori, the Prato della Valle or my personal favorite, the Giardino dell’Arena close to my department. What makes Spritz so awesome is also the way it is the perfect drink to enjoy while having a freshly baked Pizza Al Trancio (as seen in the picture). The shocking thing about Spritz is how it changed my perception about consuming alcohol a bit. I would have never considered myself as somebody who would drink alcohol earlier than the afternoon, but drinking a Spritz with my colleagues for lunch as part of the culture in Veneto changed my values towards alcohol. In total being a lot around my colleagues and friends here, drinking a Spritz every now and then became a part of my daily life here in Italy and I’m grateful for it, since I met and made a lot friends over a nice and cool Spritz in Italy during a lunch.