Eat for free in Roma

Bar hopping for free stuzzichini (snacks) and canapés during the aperitivo Happy Hour

For more info:
www.tonight.eu
www.romaexplorer.it
www.quiroma.it/Tempo-libero/locali-per-aperitivi.html
www.romace.it

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Free stuzicchini--Italian snacks--laid out on a bar at the apertivo hour
Free stuzzichini—Italian snacks—laid out on a bar at the aperitivo hour.Aperitivi ("aperitifs") is a simple idea: basically, it's Happy Hour with free nosh. During the daily see-and-be-seen passeggiata strolling hour between the end of the workday and the start of dinner, many bars and cafes in town will lay out stuzzichini (little snacks) to draw in patrons.

It usually runs from 5pm to 7pm or so, though increasingly they are starting later (around 7pm) and/or lasting longer.

This phenomenon started in Northern Italy (most people say in Milan, but I swear I encountered it in Turin years before I saw it in Milano), but happily has recently spread to Rome and other Italian cities as well.

What is there to eat during the stuzzichini aperitivo hour?

In some cases, the fare is just basic bar snacks (olives, nuts, and salty crunchy things in the chips/crisps family), but an increasing number of downtown bars—especially trendy ones—load down the bar or long tables with dozens upon dozens of mouth-watering canapés, tapas, and tidbits.

You'll find trays piled high with salamis and cheeses, tiny pizzas, various pates and cured meats atop rounds of bread, arancini (fried rice balls gooey with mozzarella, bits of grilled meat, and peas), grilled veggies, stuffed frittate (a cross between an omlette and a quiche), pretty much any kind of food you can spear on a toothpick, and all sorts of pastries, tortes, and cookies. Bar-hop your way from one cafe to another and you can easily make a full meal out of it.

Best of all, it's all absolutely free. I mean, they expect you to order drinks as well, but no one slaps your hand away from the food platters if you're not holding a glass in the other hand.

I do, however, "splurge." I order something to drink at each bar to accompany my stuzzichini, rending my meal, technically, not free. When I have wine and snacks at one bar, wine and snacks at a second one, espresso and desserts at a third, I'm stuffed—and all dinner cost me was about €5–€8 in vino and coffee.

How to find stuzzichini bars

The best and latest hotspots for snacking in any Italian city change regularly. I find pretty good luck just wandering the downtown streets in search of crowded bars. However, you can find lists of good snacking cafes at the following websites.

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This material was last updated February 2011. All information was accurate at the time.

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