The Milanese aperitivo is the 18:00 ritual of a Campari spritz or Negroni with a tray of small bites (olives, focaccia, salumi, panzerotti) included with the price of the drink. The city's signature social institution.

The aperitivo tradition was built in Milan around the Camparino bar (founded 1915 in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the city's marble shopping arcade), the original house bar of Campari, the bittersweet red aperitif invented in 1860 by Gaspare Campari in Novara. The bar-with-snacks model spread through the city in the postwar decades; by the 1980s it was the Milanese 6pm ritual. The modern aperitivo culture (a drink plus a tray of free small bites, around €10 to €15) is now an obligation rather than a luxury; the bars compete on the quality of the tray as much as the drink. Camparino remains the historical reference; modern bars like Ugo and Nottingham Forest run cocktail-driven takes.

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