The richest edition of the guide to Italy`s cocktail bars returns, completely revamped, with more than 320 selected venues, and a new printed version produced in collaboration with Spirito Autoctono and the Touring Club Italia.

BlueBlazeR`s Guide to Italy`s Cocktail Bars is a virtual container, available at guida.blueblazer.it starting Jan. 23, containing addresses, information and all the updates on Italy`s best cocktail bars. 

Navigation of the menu is simple and intuitive: one can decide to geolocate and select the venues that will appear on the map, or filter by the four categories (cocktail bar, bistro - restaurant, hotel bar and speakeasy). In each case, `clicking` on a venue will open the tab with a brief description introducing the bar, some information on recommended cocktails and the type of cocktails made, hours, contact information, and direct access to maps for plotting your way with your navigator. "The categories are a useful tool to allow anyone, based on their tastes and expectations, to choose quickly. Beyond the proper `cocktail bar,` `bistrot-restaurant` indicates those establishments where, in addition to drinking, a food experience is offered that is the result of cuisine, in many cases even noteworthy, not to say `starred`", emphasizes Massimo Gaetano Macrì, editor-in-chief of BlueBlazer and co-creator of the Guide.

 "Then we could not forget the hotel bars, of which we are great admirers. As a matter of fact, with our work, we would like to make it clear that the elegant and muffled atmospheres of these places could be frequented by everyone. In Italy there is still a lot of mistrust and there are still many who wonder if you can enter a hotel just to have a drink, without being a guest."

The Guide`s 320 plus bars are the result of careful selection by Giampiero Francesca and Massimo Gaetano Macrì, supported by a panel of experts and journalists who, on a regional basis, preselected a long local list. In the 2023 edition, in fact, all Italian regions are present in the Guide, with an increasing focus on provincebased realities, which are as interesting as they are, often, difficult to discover. Hence villages with just a few hundred inhabitants in every corner of our peninsula find space alongside large cities such as Rome and Milan. 

With 48 selected cocktail bars, Lazio, confirms itself as the region with the highest number of venues in the Guide, followed, a mere one bar behind by Lombardy, and Tuscany (41 selected cocktail bars). Among cities, however, Milan, with its 37 addresses, is the capital of Italian mixed drinks. The criteria applied to select bars are based on hospitality, as well as on the quality of service and cocktails. 

"We never choose a venue because it`s good for drinking. That`s not our primary concern. We mainly consider the high degree of hospitality, which is increasingly rare these days, which translates into the ability to make the customer feel good, allowing them to have a complete experience. Then, of course, comes the cocktail."

There are numerous new features in the 2023 edition of BlueBlazer`s Guide to Italy`s Cocktail Bars. First and foremost is the publication of the first printed version of the guide; a paper edition, produced in collaboration with Spirito Autoctono and Touring Club Italia and available from March 2023, which will contain a selection of the 100 most representative cocktail bars on the Italian scene. Also in collaboration with Spirito Autoctono and the Touring Club Italia, the BlueBlazeR Guide will award, for the first year, the prizes for Best Cocktail Bar, Best Bartender and Best Hotel Bartender in Italy.

 The `Best Cocktail Martini` award, personally chosen by Francesca and Macrì, could not be missing, as per the magazine`s tradition. This is a small recognition of the work of the bartenders of the venues in the Guide.

"Far be it from us to make rankings, let`s be clear, but we drank Martini cocktails almost everywhere, sometimes several times in the same place, so we have the `small` presumption to be able to decree the best; the one that, for some reason, impressed us the most in our travels during 2022. For the following year, another round, another run," said Giampiero Francesca. Award which, for this edition, was given to Emanuele Broccatelli of the W Hotel in Rome.

Also returning is the award to the "revelation bar", that is, that reality uncovered in the Italian province, far from the spotlight and the big cities, which has, however, positively amazed the BlueBlazeR editorial staff. An award given to Mezzo Pieno because "Giuseppe Lovine, for everyone Pino, is a hero. His place is Marcianise, 50 thousand inhabitants, a complicated past, and a deep-rooted village identity. Giuseppe has brought modern mixology to his town, not disrupting its chrisms.". The reward for this particular achievement is a year-long collaboration with Dripstillery, an Italian distillery that makes, among other products, Bitter Fusetti, with whom the winning venue will be able to develop its product idea.

Atrium bar - best hotel bar

Federico Diddi (Sal8 bar agricolo) - best bartender 

Scrt Club Vincenza - best cocktail bar 

Emanuele Broccatelli (W Rome) - best Cocktail Martini

Mezzo pieno Marcianese - revelation bar