If you go to an Italian restaurant – a good one, anyway – you’ll notice at the end of the menu, near the coffee and desserts, a selection of after-dinner drinks. Often, the heading is amari, from the Italian word for ‘bitter’… but there might be any number of sweet things – like limoncello or sambuca – or fiery things – like grappa.
All of these are digestivi designed to get your digestion going, contrasting with the aperitivi you have to get your appetite going at the start of the meal. (Nowadays, doctors realize that drinking liqueurs with high alcohol content is more likely to irritate your stomach than stimulate it… But, hey, they taste good.)
