Short answer: aperitivo runs from 6:00 to 7:30pm, three minutes from the Circus Maximus, at the counter or in the outdoor area on Viale Aventino. Sixteen classic cocktails, five alcohol-free, and a kitchen that keeps going long after the aperitivo hour ends.
Aperitivo is the Italian hour between work and dinner: one drink, something to eat with it, and no hurry. It is not a happy hour and it is not a starter — it is a habit, and in this part of Rome it happens with two thousand years of chariot track a couple of hundred metres away.
What follows is what to look for, and what we actually do.
What the hour is, if you are visiting
Italians eat dinner late — 8:30 or 9pm is normal. Aperitivo fills the gap: you sit down around six or seven, order a drink, and something to eat arrives with it. It is the cheapest, easiest way to spend an evening in Rome without committing to a full dinner, and it is the moment when the city is at its most sociable.
Ours runs from 6:00 to 7:30pm. That window matters: turn up at 8 and you have missed it, though the kitchen is open and you can simply have dinner instead.
What separates a good aperitivo from a poured spritz
Not every bar around here lives up to the setting. Four things are worth checking, anywhere:
- Cocktails that are made, not poured. A spritz assembled in eight seconds is not a cocktail, it is a serving.
- Food that is not an afterthought. Crisps and olives in a plastic bowl mean the food is there to justify the price of the drink.
- Room to sit. If you are standing shoulder to shoulder you are not slowing down, which is the entire point.
- Hours that hold up on event nights. In summer this area fills up, and a place that closes the kitchen at 10:30 is no use to you.
The drinks
The list is sixteen classic cocktails and five alcohol-free, made at the counter by bartenders who do this for a living. Classics done properly rather than a long list of inventions: if you want a Negroni that tastes like a Negroni, that is the idea. The full list, ingredient by ingredient, is on the cocktail and drink list page, and there is a wine list of 68 labels, 12 of them by the glass, if you would rather have a glass of wine.
The five alcohol-free ones are on the same list and cost less — worth knowing if you are driving or simply not drinking.
The food that comes with it
Sharing boards, fried bites and strips of pizza, made in the same kitchen that does dinner. That is the practical difference: the aperitivo is not run off a separate counter with separate standards, it comes out of the kitchen that an hour later is sending out grilled meat and pasta.
Which also means that if the appetite grows you do not have to move. You carry straight on into dinner at the same table — the dinner and grill menu is the same one the room is working through all evening. Everything on the aperitivo is listed, allergen by allergen, on the aperitivo page.
After a concert at the Circus Maximus
In summer the Circus Maximus becomes the biggest concert stage in Italy, and the evening does not end with the last song. We are open until 1am every day, until 2am on Friday and Saturday, which is the part that matters: you can walk back from the concert and still find somewhere alive, with the bar working and something to eat.
The alternative, most nights, is settling for the first place still open. If you are planning around a date, we keep a piece on the concert calendar and where to eat around it.
Where we are
- Address: Viale Aventino 32, 00153 Rome — three minutes on foot from the Circus Maximus
- Getting here: Circo Massimo station, metro line B, four minutes on foot
- Aperitivo: 6:00–7:30pm, at the counter or in the outdoor area
- Open: 365 days a year until 1am, 2am on Friday and Saturday
- Booking: online or +39 342 189 9629
Four hundred square metres that change job through the day — restaurant, cocktail bar, pizzeria and grill — which is why the aperitivo here is not a gap between two other things. If you want the wider picture of the area, there is the practical guide to the Circus Maximus.
Frequently asked questions
What time is aperitivo in Rome?
Generally between 6 and 8pm, before Italian dinner time which starts around 8:30. Ours runs from 6:00 to 7:30pm. After that the kitchen carries straight on with dinner, so arriving late is not a problem — you simply have dinner instead.
What exactly is an Italian aperitivo?
A drink before dinner with something to eat alongside it. It is not a happy hour and it is not a starter: it is the hour where you sit down, slow down and decide what to do with the evening. In Rome it is the most sociable part of the day.
Do you have alcohol-free options?
Yes — five alcohol-free cocktails on the same list as the sixteen classics, at a lower price. There is also a wine list of 68 labels with 12 available by the glass.
Can we stay for dinner afterwards?
Yes, at the same table. The aperitivo comes out of the same kitchen that does dinner, so you carry on without moving — grill, pizza on three doughs, homemade pasta.
Is there outdoor seating?
Yes, there is an outdoor area on Viale Aventino, which in spring and summer is where the aperitivo hour actually happens. Worth booking on a warm evening.
How late are you open after a concert?
Until 1am, and until 2am on Friday and Saturday, every day of the year. Most kitchens in the area close between 10:30 and 11pm, so on a concert night it is worth checking kitchen hours rather than opening hours before you walk over.
More practical questions — hours, parking, dogs, accessibility — in our FAQ.
