What's an Aperitivo? Here in Piemonte the word becomes a verb meaning
let's meet for a drink. There are some noticeable differences from the American
version.
In Italy it is always at a bar/cafe; these terms are interchangeable, hours are
from about 5:30 to 8:00(so you have time to get home for dinner, they eat
late here).
The drink of choice is usually wine, here in Alba bubbles are very
popular; Champagne, Franciacorta, Prosecco or local sparkling wine.
Food is always served with your drink order and is always
included in the price.
The food is bite sized snacks whose quality can vary
that you eat with a toothpick or your fingers.
Very trendy bars will sometimes offer their snacks buffet style on the counter.
Here are some examples of the snacks "stuzzichini":

Tags: wine bars

A new Christmas tradition, wine bar hopping(very different from bar
hopping) in Alba. What started out to be a easy going short evening
because most of Alba closes at 9:00 on Christmas Eve changed after
we saw a flyer for an outdoor concert...


Gospel in Alba ??? we decide to wait and see if it's good

Looks ok so we give it a try, but first we need to find an open bar of any
kind to kill 45 min. till show time.

Complete success, the show was great! Live Gospel in Alba, Italy,
a little strange, however very cool and a cold 40 degrees we are losing our
Minnesota blood: 40 is the new 5 below.

Tags: wine bars

You sure can't judge a wine bar by it's door. We have been walking
by this place for years and finally gave it a try, once inside we found the
perfect definition of a vineria (think wine bar mixed with coffee shop,
neither of which exists separately in Italy). The place is great and the staff very
friendly, it's called Casa della Torre. It is located on a side street off the
main walking street in Alba. From this lesson we have decided to give
the other wine bars we've been walking by a chance and do little "mini" reviews
on all the wine bars in Alba(This could take awhile, there are ALOT of wine bars).

A back bar to be proud of with great stemware along with very serious
coffee. By definition a vineria is not a restaurant, however you wont go
hungry.

With every glass of wine you get a fancy plate of snacks, always delicious
but varies day to day, hour to hour. The wine by the glass is unusual too,
most vinerias in the area only serve local wine, but this place always has some wine
from someplace else, like Chile, Spain or other regions in Italy.
This is great because we go a little crazy drinking barbera and nebbbiolo
everyday, even though we love it. It also has ample choices for "bollicine" bubbles.
Bubbles are the most popular aperitivo in Piedmont wine bars. You don't see
very much Prosecco but alot of Franciacorta, Champagne and of course, locally
produced bubbles which most are quite good.

Tags: wine bars