The good hour is the one when the light drops and the city slows down a little more. Ferrara is slow enough already, quiet, on a human scale, a place to cross on foot or by bike, but at aperitivo time it turns positively gentle. People go out, sit down, wait for the evening to arrive. So the question is a simple one: where to have an aperitivo in Ferrara, and with what in your glass.
We at Le Nuvole have a small idea about that. We'll tell you about the areas, the atmosphere that changes from one square to the next, and the wine we like to pour when the sun goes down: cool, saline, from these lands. No rankings, no addresses that change with the season. Just the places where it makes sense to stop, and why.
The Listone: Piazza Trento e Trieste
Anyone arriving in Ferrara and asking where to go for an aperitivo ends up here sooner or later. Piazza Trento e Trieste, the Listone, as everyone calls it, is the heart of city life in the historic centre, the theatrical space between the Cathedral and its museum.
It's the square for occasions: broad, busy, a place people pass through. Along the flank of the Cathedral runs the Loggia dei Merciai, and Via Mazzini starts from here. The mood is see-and-be-greeted: you sit down and sooner or later someone you know walks by. Good for anyone who wants to be in the thick of things, with the façade of the Duomo, that weave of Romanesque and Gothic, as a backdrop while the light fades.
Via delle Volte: an aperitivo in the shade of the vòlti
Move a few hundred metres and everything changes. Via delle Volte is medieval Ferrara, one of the most evocative streets in the city: the backbone of the “linear Ferrara” that grew up between the 7th and 11th centuries. The name comes from the vòlti, the overhead passageways and arches that once linked the warehouses on the riverbank to the workshops towards the centre.
Here the mood is intimate, a little secret. Stone, brick, shade. Fourteenth- and fifteenth-century buildings closing in overhead. It's the right area for a slow aperitivo, the kind that turns into dinner without anyone noticing. Less shop window, more conversation.
Around the Castle: the moat and the four towers
Then there's the Castello Estense, the symbol of Ferrara: four towers rising from the moat, red terracotta brick, white balustrades, drawbridges. Sitting here for an aperitivo has something theatrical about it, the water all around, the great bulk darkening while the sky stays light for a moment longer.
It's the most “postcard” area, and that's fine: some evenings a glass is worth it just to look up at the Torre dei Leoni from below. From here, if you like, you can carry on along Corso Ercole I d'Este, the monumental axis almost two kilometres long, as far as the Porta degli Angeli and the ring of the walls, nine kilometres of green to do on foot or by bike. That's no longer aperitivo: that's afterwards. But it's nice to know it's there.
A gem: the oldest osteria in the world
We can't resist. If Ferrara's aperitivo has one symbolic place, it's the Enoteca Al Brindisi, next to the Duomo in Via Guglielmo degli Adelardi: considered the oldest osteria in the world, documented since 1435 (back then the Hostaria del Chiucchiolino). In the fifteenth century people arrived by boat. It's hard to get more “local aperitivo” than that.
We mention it gladly, because in Ferrara generosity pays for everyone: a city with a six-hundred-year-old osteria is a city where the very idea of stopping for a glass has deep roots.
What to drink: the wine of the sands
And here we come home. Because in Ferrara an aperitivo can be a statement of place rather than just any old glass.
A few kilometres from the centre, between the province, the Po Delta and the Adriatic coast, lies the Bosco Eliceo DOC, the “wines of the sands”, so called because the vines grow on soils that are up to 95-97% sand, the legacy of the Po, the Reno and the land reclamations. The leading grape is Fortana, the old “Uva d'Oro”, the golden grape, grown around here for centuries.
They're wines with a precise soul: modest alcohol (around 10.5-11%), good acidity, and that slightly saline note that comes from the sea next door. Light, easy to like, often lightly sparkling. In a word: made for aperitivo. The savouriness of the sand, after all, is the same thing we look for in the fish of these lagoons; it's the thread that ties the vineyard to the table.
Worth trying, when you get the chance, is the Fortana Rosé, the sparkling wine the Consorzio proposes precisely as an aperitivo, a local rosé instead of the usual anonymous white. And if you like living wines, look for the bottle-refermented wines of the small Bosco Eliceo growers, such as those of Mirco Mariotti: ungrafted vines a few hundred metres from the Adriatic, “farmhouse bubbles”, saline and a little wild. No champagne. Something more ours.
Our aperitivo
We're a fish trattoria, not a bar on the square, but we know what a glass before sitting down means. Eli's cellar is “always on the move”, built on artisan winemakers and natural wines, and the wine of the sands is part of the family: we happily uncork it as the evening begins, perhaps with something from the sea to ease you into the meal, no hurry.
If an aperitivo in the squares makes you want to stay, the step from a Fortana to a table of fish is shorter than it looks. But that, if anything, is another evening.
Frequently asked questions
Where do you go for an aperitivo in Ferrara?
The classic areas are three: the Listone (Piazza Trento e Trieste), the busy heart of the city near the Duomo; Via delle Volte, the more intimate and evocative medieval street; and the area around the Castello Estense, theatrical, with its moat and towers. Next to the Duomo there's also Al Brindisi, the oldest osteria in the world, documented since 1435.
What do you drink at aperitivo time in Ferrara?
The local glass is the wine of the sands from the Bosco Eliceo: cool, slightly saline Fortana, often lightly sparkling, and the Fortana Rosé proposed precisely as an aperitivo. Alternatively, the bottle-refermented wines of the small Bosco Eliceo growers, lively, savoury wines born on vines a few steps from the sea.
If you're passing
Ferrara is a city that rewards those who slow down. Choose the square that suits you, order a glass of these sands, and let the light do its work. Then, if you get hungry and feel like the sea, you know where we are: the table is ready, no hurry.
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