Amalfi Coast Bars
Italian bar culture is very peculiar.
For Italians going to a bar, is really a daily appointment, which has a different meaning depending on the time of the day:
In the morning to have rushed breakfasts, standing up, downing boiling hot coffee eating a pastry in two bites, before rushing to work.
After lunch or mid morning to have a lingering coffee with someone randomly met on the street or with an old friend, or with any acquaintance, as long as the other person is up for a coffee too.
Late afternoon the range of choices is slightly larger, indeed, bars become authorised to sell other drinks besides coffee, so some will have a small beer, some will have a tiny bottle of red bubbles, but the majority will have a coffee, to get through the evening.
In the evening there is a must do stop at the bar for a coffee before going out to pubs and clubs, and obviously on the way back from a night out, there is a further stop at the bar for an early breakfast cappuccino or coffee and a freshly baked pastry. To get into bed full and satisfied!
Bars really represent the core of local social life. Indeed these are not just places where to have a quick coffee and a nice pastry, but in many smaller villages, bars are proper public arenas. Here important issues and gossips are thoroughly discussed and local news are quickly spread. Also these are the places where to find a friendly face and to have a chat, when feeling lonely.
To have a proper experience of Southern Italian bar atmospheres, it is best to look for the less elegant bars, the ones with crooked chairs just outside the doors, with old elegant men sitting outside playing cards. To find the best coffee, the best pastry and best ice-creams it is always important to look out for where the elderly tend to go, as they will know what the original taste really is!
Obviously the Amalfi Coast has not stayed back in the 1950s, so bars too have evolved to more recent customs, there is a huge variety of places where besides coffee and pastries there is a wide selection of cocktails and drinks.
Moreover on the Amalfi Coast some bars look out onto beautiful panoramas, which will glue you to your chair, having one coffee after the other, just to keep looking at such breathtaking view.
