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My time in Italy : Aperitivo

There is a tradition in Itay that I found out trying to meet a girl, ok, don't get any ideas. She is pretty I don't deny, but she friendzoned our entire group as soon as we met, no we didn't hit on her, that's how she introduced herself. "Enough of girl" I hear you say, but she introduced me to this awesome thing and how can I not write about the background? We shared the same workplace and that was the reason she came forward and spoke to us on our journey towards Florence, our chatty train journey stopped at Milan and we went our separate ways. 

About three months pass and I go to Biella again (possibly for last time, thanks COVID). I have no reason to contact her, but if you are working for the same employer in a small town, chances are you cross paths, and we did so during the last week of my stay. She was unhappy that I didn't let her know I am in town, anyway invited me to a party scheduled for Friday night. But my flight was already scheduled to leave on Saturday morning so I said "I don't want to lose my sleep or be wasted on the flight and politely declined, hiding the fact that I don't know how to party. Thirty minutes pass by, ping, in chat again, invites me to aperitivo in Glamour. I'm like "what's that?"; she is like "oh, it is just that we hang out after work, warming up to dinner".

Theoretically aperitivo is meant to prepare your appetite for dinner with dry liquor, can you even imagine drinking an hour before dinner to prepare for dinner? that is a pure commitment to dinner! (remember? I did say Italians reserved a proper meal for lunch and dinner). Am I, teetotaller? I will neither confirm nor deny and you are going to have to look harder for clues.

And it was warming indeed, without hesitation we were discussing all things that could be considered sensitive to discuss, probably it was the calming breeze of 7pm or the relaxed atmosphere of everyone having a cup to sip under dim light. She is a Muslim from Palestine, of the lot she got picked apart first for being a Muslim woman and yet not covering her head and staying out with men who are not from her family. Then it was one among them from being handsome but still unlucky to get a lady love.

And the table turned on me because they don't know me personally they went for the general Indian stereotype of not eating beef or spreading hate. I'm from Tamil Nadu, here NOTA gets more vote than BJP, the party spreading hate. I had fun and felt superior pointing out we do eat beef, and it is a poor man's source of protein. I don't consume beef but they don't know that 😎 I neither lied, I kept saying Tamils eat beef, Tamils are tolerant towards religion, Tamils are wonderful! When I said an Italian priest translated the celebrated Thirukurral into Latin that attracted the attention of European scholar they were proud of themselves and delighted for the past shared history.

Coming back to Aperitivo, we had olives, chips, roasted nuts, taralli as sides for the drink. There is no standard set time for Aperitivo like happy hours, but one can equate those two to understand, but that is sort of oversimplification. Generally, I'd say 6 pm to 8pm, and dinner serving starts at 8pm, oh the fun of side, some do go overboard and will order bruschetta or even pizza to pair with the drink and understandably they'd usually end up not having any separate dinner. Take this with a pinch of salt as I'm no expert or a drinker, usual drink of choice is cocktail, wine or rarely beer. On average Aperitivo per person will cost €6 or €7, and the place we went to already had the sides, probably if you order additionally it will cost. Touristy spots are known to have higher prices for the view or simply to scam, there is nothing wrong in asking the host about the price, ask, but ask before getting seated down. Ok, I hope I have prepared you for dinner! 


My Time in Italy

<<Lunch | Dinner>>

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Location: Italy

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