MILAN – In Italy, a bar is much more than just an establishment serving refreshments: it is the place for breakfast, a coffee break and an aperitif, but also a space for meeting people and socialising. But which Italian city has the biggest number of bars? This question was posed by Esquire Italia, which, in a recent in-depth feature, examined the presence and concentration of bars in Italian cities.
The answer is neither Milan nor Rome, despite the fact that these two cities are often associated with a vast and diverse range of bars.
According to Esquire, the Italian city with the most bars is Bari. The capital city of Apulia, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy, stands out for its high concentration of bars and for a particularly significant ratio between the number of bars and the population.
The data also highlights the role that bars continue to play in Italians’ daily habits. From the cup of espresso enjoyed at the counter at breakfast time to the aperitif, these venues represent one of the most recognisable features of everyday life in the country.
In the case of Bari, the prevalence of bars is woven into the urban and social fabric of a city where eating and drinking out and socialising in bars form an important part of daily life.
This interesting fact, highlighted by Esquire, thus offers an opportunity to examine the geography of Italian bars from a different perspective, demonstrating just how deeply bars and the ritual of coffee are still rooted in Italian culture.
