Tradizioni Culinarie Continued

Although the Mediterranean food is awesomely great I think I just can't miss out the drinks part... Although most coffee in Italy comes from South America, Italy is the first country to come to mind when you mention coffee. Although the beans are grown elsewhere, Italy is considered the home of coffee and is where many of the beans are roasted, where the espresso machines are made and where making the perfect espresso, cappuccino or latte has been elevated to a high artform.

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But along with coffee it is definitely worth to mention some other drinks very typical of the region. The absolute favourite I tried is called Spritz! It is a typical Veneto drink, tasty, bittersweet and wonderfully refreshing! Here is a quick recipe in case you feel you wanna try it out (I especially recommend it to all campari lovers!):

1/3 prosecco, /3 campari, 1/3 soda
Stir with ice in an old fashioned glass. Decoration: a slice of orange and a big olive.

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You can find a lot of sparkling wines from the family of prosecco in Venice, and along with Spritz another very popular cocktail is Bellini, which is also sold ready - in bottles. The recipe can be found here.

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One of the interesting experiences is bying 'vino sfuso' or 'bulk wine'. This basically means that you go to the wine shop with your own bottle and purchase wine by liter - the variety depends on the shop - usually these are local wines of course - and the quality is very good!

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Finally it would be totally improper not to mention Limonchello - lemon liqueur mainly produced in Southern Italy. It is bright yellow in color, sweet and lemony, but not sour since it contains no lemon juice.

Image by Olga