There is nothing more Italian than the Negroni, and this year it is celebrating its centenary. Said to have been invented in Florence in 1919 at the request of Count Camillo Negroni, who—back from the hard-drinking West Coast of America—demanded that the soda water in his Americano cocktail be upgraded to gin. Since then, the Negroni has become one of the best known and loved Italian cocktails.
To mark the Negroni’s 100th birthday, Hotel de Russie’s Stravinskij Bar is serving its own special tribute to the classic aperitif: the Sparkling Gold Negroni. No ordinary Negroni, the Sparkling Gold version combines the distinct flavours of coffee and chocolate with a glittering gold leaf garnish for a seriously decadent serve.
Ingredients:
4 cl Bombay East Gin
3 cl espresso
3 cl Biancosarti
3 cl Martini Ambrato
2 drops of chocolate bitters
3 or 4 Coffee beans
Edible gold leaf, to decorate
Twist of lemon
Ice
Method
Pour the gin into a mixing glass with some ice cubes
Add the espresso, Biancosarti, Martini Ambrato and chocolate bitters and mix everything well with a bar spoon
Once mixed, strain and pour into a glass
Garnish with coffee beans, edible gold leaf and a twist of lemon
To enjoy more of the Stravinskij Bar’s Italian cocktails with a twist, please email reservations.derussie@roccofortehotels.com or call +39 06 32 888 830.
Few things evoke nostalgia quite like food. A single flavour or familiar aroma can transport us across years and continents in an instant. Long after we've forgotten the route we walked or the sights we saw, it is often that taste that stays with us.
The Grand Tour has had its day, in the most fortunate way. What was once a rite of years is now within reach of anyone with the curiosity to make it. The prescribed list of sights has loosened too, leaving the traveller free to follow Goethe's original instinct, to stand where the present is being made as well as where the past is preserved. Today, our journey through Milan, Florence and Rome begins, as it always did, in the north…
Opera was born in late 16th-century Italy, conceived as a revival of ancient Greek drama. From the outset, it was a sensory art form, drawing music, language, staging and spectacle into a single experience. Outdoor performance has been part of its story almost as long, from the courtyards and gardens of Renaissance Europe to the festivals that now define the European summer.
