What Venice Drinks

Venice is a city of rituals.

Some are grand and immediately visible: Carnival, the Regata Storica, the Festa del Redentore. Others are much smaller, woven into everyday life so naturally that you might miss them if you are not paying attention.

Stopping for a coffee at the bar. Meeting a friend for an ombra. Ordering a cicchetto with a glass of wine. Sitting down for an aperitivo before dinner.

Drinking in Venice is not simply about what is in the glass. It is about where you are, who you are with and the rhythm of the city around you.

In this episode of Venice Talks, I speak with drinks writer, podcaster and author Susan L. Schwartz about her new book, A Guide to Drinking in Venice.

It is a conversation about drinks, of course, but also about history, tradition, people and the many different ways a city can tell its story through a glass.

A Different Way of Exploring Venice

Visitors often arrive in Venice with a very clear image of what drinking here looks like.

Usually, there is a Spritz involved.

And while the Spritz is certainly part of Venetian life, it is only one small piece of a much larger picture.

Venice has a rich and varied drinking culture that includes wine, cocktails, coffee, beer, spirits and, above all, places with their own personalities and histories. That is exactly what Susan explores in A Guide to Drinking in Venice.

During our conversation, we talk about how the idea for the book developed and what it meant to research a city that has already been written about thousands of times.

The challenge was not simply to create another list of places to drink. It was to understand the culture behind them.

Because in Venice, the place matters just as much as the drink.

From Bacari to Cocktail Bars

One of the most fascinating aspects of Venice is the way old and new continue to coexist.

The traditional bacaro remains one of the most recognisable symbols of Venetian social life. These small bars, often centred around wine and cicchetti, are places where people stop rather than settle in for hours.

You have a glass, exchange a few words and move on. It is informal, social and deeply connected to the city.

But Venice is not frozen in time. In recent years, the city has also developed an increasingly interesting cocktail scene, with bartenders experimenting with local ingredients, Venetian flavours and international techniques.

Susan and I discuss this evolution and how the newer cocktail culture can sit alongside more traditional ways of drinking without replacing them.

That balance is important.

Venice has always absorbed outside influences and transformed them into something of its own.

Its drinking culture is no different.

Researching a City Through Its Bars

Writing a guide to drinking in Venice means spending a great deal of time talking to people.

Bartenders, bar owners, wine professionals, producers and people who simply understand the social language of the city all become part of the research.

And this is where a guide like Susan’s becomes much more interesting than a simple collection of recommendations.

Every address has a story. Some are connected to families who have worked in the city for generations. Others belong to a much newer chapter of Venice. Some places preserve traditions. Others challenge them. Together, they show how the city continues to change.

During the episode, Susan talks about some of the discoveries she made while working on the book and the people who helped her understand Venice from a different perspective. That human element is essential. A bar without people is just a room with bottles.

More Than a Spritz

We could hardly talk about drinking in Venice without mentioning the Spritz.

But one of the themes running through our conversation is the idea of looking beyond it.

There is nothing wrong with ordering a Spritz in Venice. The problem begins when it becomes the only reference point for understanding the city’s drinking culture. There are local wines to discover, classic cocktails with Venetian connections, historic drinking traditions, contemporary bars and countless small rituals that visitors may never notice.

Even something as simple as ordering an ombra can open a door onto Venetian history and language.

Drinks become a form of cultural storytelling. And that is perhaps the most interesting idea behind A Guide to Drinking in Venice.

You are not simply choosing what to drink. You are learning how a city drinks.

Venice Through a Different Lens

One of the reasons I wanted to invite Susan onto Venice Talks is that her book offers another way of reading Venice.

Instead of monuments, churches and museums, the map is made of bars, cafés, wine glasses and conversations.

It is still cultural history, just told from a different angle. And perhaps that is one of the best ways to understand Venice.

Not by rushing from one famous sight to another but by stopping. Ordering something. Watching what happens around you.

Listening. Because Venice reveals itself in small moments.

Sometimes, all it takes is a glass in your hand.

Key Notes from This Episode

In this episode, we talk about:

• The inspiration behind A Guide to Drinking in Venice
• How Susan researched the book
• Venice’s traditional drinking rituals
• Bacari and their role in Venetian social life
• Why Venice is about much more than Spritz
• The growth of the city’s cocktail scene
• Wine, coffee, spirits and other Venetian drinking traditions
• The people behind Venice’s bars
• How drinking culture reflects the history and identity of the city
• Why exploring Venice through its bars can reveal a completely different side of the city

Listen to the new episode of Venice Talks and discover Venice one glass, one story and one conversation at a time.

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