Now in its tenth year, Florence Cocktail Week returns to shine a spotlight on the city’s vibrant mixology scene—fostering a dialogue between tradition, hospitality, and contemporary trends.
What began in 2016 has since expanded into Tuscany Cocktail Week, Venice Cocktail Week, Cortina Cocktail Weekend, and Amalfi Coast Cocktail Week. Today, the event involves a growing network of venues and professionals, making a tangible contribution to Italy’s premium cocktail culture.
The numbers tell the story. In 2016, just 13 cocktail bars participated. A decade later, Florence Cocktail Week features 55 Selected Bars (36 cocktail bars and 20 hotel bars), two Special Coming Soon, and 13 Event Partners (11 cocktail bars and two hotel bars). This exponential growth reflects how the event has helped professionalize and elevate the visibility of Italian mixology—both at home and abroad.
Yet behind the numbers is a philosophy. “Each Cocktail Week is a tailor-made project,” explains Paola Mencarelli. “Every event is crafted for its host city, respecting the local mixology scene and developing the peculiarities of each venue and each individual bartender.”
This year’s guiding theme honors that journey. Ten Years of Italian Bartenders, in Italy and Around the World puts the community front and center, celebrating the professionals who have shaped Italian cocktail culture while exporting its influence globally. The program brings together bartenders working domestically with those who have carried Italian know-how to international stages, reinforcing a shared cultural identity across diverse contexts.
“What remains after each ICW,” Mencarelli adds, “is the creation of a bar community in each city, and at the same time, a larger national community. Because the more compact and united a sector is, the more it will give life to a movement that drives the offerings of the city itself and the entire nation.”
Seven Days of Events Paired With an Exclusive Drink List
Florence Cocktail Week 2026 will be a week packed with content for enthusiasts, professionals, and newcomers alike: Dedicated Cocktail Lists, Guest Shifts, Masterclasses, Brunches, Aperitifs, Pop-Up Bars, cultural initiatives, and widespread experiences across cocktail bars, hotel bars, and partner locations.
Each participating venue will offer an exclusive FCW26 Drink List featuring 3 unique cocktails:
- 1 FCW26 Signature Cocktail: a creative, free-style creation
- 1 FCW26 Classic Cocktail: a timeless classic
- 1 FCW26 Wellness Signature Cocktail: a Low-ABV or Alcohol-Free creation
Spotlight on Bartenders and Pop-up Bars
In Florence, significant space will also be dedicated to resident bartenders through the “Barkeeper” initiative. As the true protagonists of each venue, they will be highlighted in dedicated moments, allowing the public to discover their stories, visions, and FCW26 Cocktail List directly from behind the bar. Alongside this, there will be a major focus on Pop-Up Bars representing all the Italian Cocktail Weeks—Tuscany, Venice, Cortina, and Amalfi Coast—as well as guest bartenders from Italy and Italians working abroad. This will create a continuous dialogue between different regions, experiences, and styles of “Made in Italy” mixology.
Dining, Pizza, Pastry & Gelato With The Spirits
Bridging mixology and gastronomy , this initiative, born in 2022, has increasingly involved more establishments in Florence’s rich gastronomic scene, what started with only restaurants and pizzerias, has since 2025 also included pastry shops and gelaterias – for a comprehensive involvement of key players in the food scene, not just bartenders. Chefs, Pizzaioli, Pastry Chefs, and Gelato Makers are invited to use spirits as ingredients in their creations, either as a single offering or within menus, throughout FCW week and during special evenings. It’s a different way to enhance the world of spirits, highlighting their versatility.
Gelato with the Spirits
Photography Marco Cellai
The Return Of The Contest
Among the most anticipated highlights of FCW26 is the return of the Contest, evoking the spirit of the very first Florence Cocktail Week in 2016. This initiative, which had been set aside over the years, makes its comeback in 2026 as a symbolic celebration of a decade of work, the project’s growth, and the community that made it possible. It will be a unique opportunity for the past and present of the event to meet, featuring the bartenders who contributed to the birth and development of Italian Cocktail Weeks, alongside the original 2016 final contest judges: Stefano Nincevich, Luca Pirola, and Patrick Pistolesi.
Atrium Bar, Four Seasons Hotel Firenze
Photography Michele Tamasco
Reflecting on the journey, what has surprised you most about this evolution, and what is your proudest achievement?
In these 10 years, FCW has undoubtedly made a concrete contribution to the development of the Florentine bar community. It’s a journey built over time, based on relationships, enhancing the visibility of local professionals, some of whom have achieved success and fame nationally and internationally.
It was surprising how in just a few years Florence leapt onto the scene as one of the capitals of contemporary mixology and became a coveted stage for other events that started in the wake of FCW’s success. I am also particularly proud to have opened the doors of hotel bars to the general public, thanks to constant work with the city’s 5-star hotels. Until 10 years ago, these bars were mostly functional only for hotel guests, and today they are increasingly frequented by residents, the curious, and enthusiasts.
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The theme this year is “Ten Years of Italian Bartenders, in Italy and Around the World.” Why was it so important to center the Italian bartending community for this milestone edition?
Florence’s evolution has been part of a national growth process, highlighting how Italian mixology today is represented by professionals capable of engaging with the international scene. The 2026 edition of FCW thus becomes a meeting point and moment of comparison between those working in Italy and those who have brought their Italian know-how abroad, contributing to the growth and recognition of the Italian cocktail scene, which has become a protagonist in global hospitality.
Beyond nostalgia, what does reviving the contest symbolize?
The contest was necessary in the early years of FCW to give the event appeal. It was later abandoned to avoid fueling a spirit of competition among bartenders within the same community. Re-proposing it with the same bartenders from 2016, some of whom have since left the bar, is a testament to what was necessary for the event’s development. However, it will not be proposed again, precisely in the name of the spirit of togetherness that has characterized all subsequent editions up to today.
The festival has expanded to create “Italian Cocktail Weeks” in Venice, Cortina, Amalfi, and across Tuscany. How do you ensure each event retains its unique local character while being part of a cohesive national brand?
Each Cocktail Week is a tailor-made project. Every event is crafted and organized specifically for its host city, creating a unique experience that respects the local mixology scene, developing the peculiarities and offerings of each venue and each individual bartender.
The Italian Cocktail Weeks project aims to promote the unique cultural heritage of each destination, while simultaneously creating synergies through the Pop-Up Bars featuring all the Italian Cocktail Weeks – namely Tuscany Cocktail Week, Venice Cocktail Week, Cortina Cocktail Weekend, and Amalfi Coast Cocktail Week. What remains after each ICW is the creation of a bar community in each city, and at the same time, a larger national community. Because the more compact and united a sector is, the more it will give life to a movement that drives all the offerings of the city itself and the entire nation.
FCW has always promoted “Conscious and Mindful Drinking.” How is this philosophy concretely expressed in the 2026 program?
FCW was conceived from its very beginning under the banner of responsibility and awareness. It was the first Italian Cocktail Week to address conscious drinking with both bartenders and enthusiasts, immediately including an educational component—necessary at the time in Florence to obtain the City Council’s Patronage.
In 2021, we introduced the Eco Cocktail, sparking conversation about low-alcohol options, and, at the bartenders’ discretion, the Family Friendly Cocktail, designed to welcome families during aperitivo time. We also developed the Kids Cocktail Lab to educate children about mixed drinks. In Venice, where low-alcohol conversations are more challenging, the 2022 edition highlighted the Midday Aperitivo—a low-alcohol drink rooted in Venetian tradition and suitable for any time of day.
By 2025, this journey led to the Wellness Signature Cocktail in Florence, granting non-alcoholic and low-alcohol drinks the same dignity as their alcoholic counterparts. We also began indicating alcohol percentages—a practice continued in Venice and returning for Florence’s 10th anniversary this year. It’s another way to bear witness to a journey that began a decade ago.
Looking ahead, what is the next big challenge or opportunity for Italian Cocktail Weeks?
At the moment, the intention is not to involve other destinations but to strengthen the existing ones. We will simultaneously carry forward the Reunion project, born in 2025 with the aim of shining a spotlight on the art of mixology across the Italian peninsula, shaping each event around the peculiarities of the host location by involving bartenders who have participated in the various cocktail weeks organized over the years. It’s a way to highlight the great value of the bartender community that has been created in Italy as a result of the arrival of the Italian
Cocktail Weeks.
On a personal note, after a decade of building this, what is your most cherished memory?
Among the many initiatives promoted by FCW, the cultural ones are undoubtedly my fondest memory. Among all, the one that most broke the mold and ventured beyond the strict boundaries of mixology was the 2019 conference “Spirit & Spirits,” which investigated the relationship between alcohol and religions.
Also dear to me is the Tour of Historic Cafés, an itinerary also conceived in 2019 to tell the city’s history through its meeting places – initially linked to coffee and later becoming hubs of mixology, especially thanks to the birth of the Negroni, Florence’s iconic cocktail and one of the most consumed internationally. Referring instead to the ICW format, a special place in my heart is held by the Mixology’s Cup, the ski race with a Martini cup in hand, dreamed up in 2022 for the first edition of Cortina Cocktail Weekend.
How does Florence Cocktail Week specifically enhance the experience for tourists?
The soul of Florence Cocktail Week has always been to let people experience the city through an itinerary among the selected cocktail bars, discovering the cocktails created especially for the event. To reinforce this idea, starting in 2025, the Barkeeper initiative aimed to shine a greater spotlight on resident bartenders as the true protagonists of the event, through dedicated moments that allow the public to discover their stories, visions, and the FCW26 Cocktail Lists directly from behind the bar. The festival has expanded to create “Italian Cocktail Weeks” in Venice, Cortina, Amalfi, and across Tuscany.
How do you ensure each event retains its unique local character while being part of a cohesive national brand?
Each Cocktail Week is a tailor-made project. Every event is crafted and organized specifically for its host city, creating a unique experience that respects the local mixology scene, developing the peculiarities and offerings of each venue and each individual bartender.
The Italian Cocktail Weeks project aims to promote the unique cultural heritage of each destination, while simultaneously creating synergies through the Pop-Up Bars featuring all the Italian Cocktail Weeks – namely Tuscany Cocktail Week, Venice Cocktail Week, Cortina Cocktail Weekend, and Amalfi Coast Cocktail Week. What remains after each ICW is the creation of a bar community in each city, and at the same time, a larger national community. Because the more compact and united a sector is, the more it will give life to a movement that drives all the offerings of the city itself and the entire nation.
Opening featured photo by Veronica Gaida
