Rome Travel Answers

A bar in Italy is not like a bar in other places. A bar is kind of like an informal cafe where you can get coffee, drinks, small snacks, often cigarettes, postcards and things like that.

For a 'bar' experience as in US, or England or AU, you'd look more for a pub.

You'll find beer in both bottles and tap "alla spina"

At the bar, you are charged less for a drink than if you have table service. If you sit, you'll get table service.

If you order at the bar, you shouldn't take your drink and go sit at a table unless it's very informal like at a snack bar.

Italy: the land of vino! They drink beer, though not as its drunk in USA, UK, or Down Under. If you are searching for a USA styled bar, or a UK styled pub, you may have a fruitless search; or your search may be exhausting.

I encourage you to leave your drinking habits behind in your home country. Explore! Be adventurous! Go from birra to vino! When in Rome, yes, do as the Romans do.

Thanks !!!

Nothing wrong with Italian beer - Moretti, for instance, is top-notch. And as my old Dad used to say - "Never drink on an empty stomach; have a couple of beers first." LOL

Thanks Johngayton. Yes a pre drink drink !!!

Have tried Perroni both here and Italy and its fine so for draught or bottle --how many €

The same source that I used for coffee prices gives the following: 333 ml domestic beer - 1.80 euro 200 ml domestic beer - 1.50 euro Imported or specialty beers - 2.65 euro This seems pretty cheap, huh? Again, these are the banco prices. Also, at tourist sights, prices can soar. One VTer can't stop talking about the 9 or 10 euro beer that he had in Venice.

Having said this, I will note that Rome in particular has a number of Irish and English pubs. I have a nephew who lived in Rome a year, and he spent all his nights out eating pizza and drinking beer...ARRRGH!!!

Bill

Thanks Bill for that precise info!!! On the tourist trap situ I recall being in Paris with a 1st time traveler who right or wrong wanted a cold one on Champs Elyese of all places 40 francs ($10) I said wait a bit and turned off Champs Elyese into small street ------hey presto 6 franc ($1.50) It was a very hot July day !!! I enjoy long walks in cities like Paris and Rome and look fwd to a cold one

While all of the above is quite generally true, the pizza "restaurant" just across and down the street from the Duomo in Florence, proudly serves ice cold beer in VERY large mugs. They also have pretty good pizza as well.

Note that in the summer, it's not uncommon for manual laborers to drink a beer with lunch. In my first August in Rome, I was down the highway from the university at a hole in the wall eatery. There was a group of bricklayers there, all dressed in their white outfits and little hats and covered with dust, and scarfing down huge plates of spaghetti with a tomato sauce...and washing it all down with bottled beer.

Wine and beer are foods to the Italians, and you consume them in the right season. Besides, if you go up to the north east (i.e. the Veneto and Friuli), you'll find a lot of people speaking Italian with distinctive German accents...yeah, beer is definitely OK there ;-)

Bill

I started my rough plan in Italy with focus on Rome to see something i,d missed--THE VATICAN!!! Next Naples,Pompei ,Herculaneum and some time in Sicily before crossing Adriatic for some time in the Balkans As luck good fortune i find i,ll have some time to use in Venice and Florence and maybe two days in Rome before flying home

So i can explore the northern foods & beverages as a bonus

OK - We were there in 2004 so maybe things are different now BUT,,,,,, We went to a non-touristy street, sat in the tented area outside a bar and ordered a large beer and a G&T. Previously in Rome, a large beer meant a pint (as in UK pint) - THIS time they brought me a litre. Oh well, I thought - "it saves me going for a second beer".

When the bill came it was for TENTY TWO EUROS! Complete rip-off.

We visited a couple of othe rbars also - horrendously expensive.

It often depends whereabouts you sit of course - but even so......

Two tiny pots of tea - one tea bag in each and a tiny plastic carton of UHT milk near Piazza Del Popolo (sitting outside again) was NINE euros.

Ouch!!! Was in two different parts of Paris last year , firstly around Place du Republique with moderate to expensive then second time in a run down area with very cheap beverages On the Saturday night had the bright idea to visit Quartier Latin and more pricey beer but had a ball so spent it up !!!!

Big cities ,even my home town Melbour ne suffers that syndrome So its a part luck , part local know how ------will enjoy Rome cheap or not so cheap beer