Milano-Torino
A Milano-Torino is 45ml of Campari and 45ml of sweet vermouth, built over large ice cubes in a rocks glass, stirred for 20 to 30 seconds and finished with an orange slice in the glass. About 1.8 UK units. There is no spirit in it: one bitter liqueur and one aromatised wine. The name gives the parts away. Campari came from Milan, vermouth from Turin. Difford’s Guide dates the pairing to the 1860s at Gaspare Campari’s Caffè Campari in Milan, and Punch says it is shortened to Mi-To; the decade is tradition rather than a dated record. Lengthen it with soda and it becomes an Americano. Add gin and it becomes a Negroni. Drink the Milano-Torino first and you taste the base both are built on: orange, herbs and wood from the Campari, as its product page has it, and vanilla, dried fruit and spice from a rich vermouth such as Carpano’s Antica Formula, as its own page has it, with nothing to stretch or strengthen either.
Glassware: Rocks Glass
Garnish: Orange slice
Ingredients
45ml
At 25% ABV, the bitter half and the Milano of the name: bitter orange, gentian and a firm sugar, poured at full equality with the vermouth rather than the third it gets in a Negroni.
45ml
A rich rosso at about 16% ABV, bringing vanilla, dried fruit and spice. We keep the open bottle cold and finish it within a month, because at half the drink a stale one shows at once.
Instructions
Fill a rocks glass with large ice cubes.
Add the Campari and the sweet vermouth.
Stir for 20 to 30 seconds.
Garnish with an orange slice in the glass.
Our version
There is no fixed historical measure for the Milano-Torino beyond equal parts. Ours pours 45ml of each over large ice, stirred in the glass, so the drink holds its strength without soda or spirit.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Open a fresh bottle of sweet vermouth and keep it in the fridge. At 45ml it is half the drink, and a bottle that has stood warm for a month tastes flat against the Campari, with no gin or soda to cover it. Choose a rich Torino-style rosso. A thin vermouth lets the Campari run the glass, and the drink becomes bitter orange and little else. Use large cubes and stir for 20 to 30 seconds. With no soda and no spirit, water is the only thing softening the two bottles, and small ice keeps melting until the second half of the glass is weak.
Behind the Milano-Torino
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
The name is literal: Campari from Milan and vermouth from Turin, poured together over ice. Difford’s Guide says Gaspare Campari created it in the 1860s at his Caffè Campari in Milan, and Campari’s own history dates that café to 1867; the drink is still ordered as a Mi-To.
The earliest recipes we have read are in Elvezio Grassi’s 1000 Misture of 1936, which lists two Milano-Torino drinks: a shaken cocktail in his own series and a classic aperitif of 20% Campari, 20% Cinzano red vermouth and 60% soda. So the date is tradition. The order that followed is the usual account, as Difford’s Guide quotes Gaz Regan: the Americano lengthened it with soda, and the Negroni swapped the soda for gin.
A Bitter and a Wine
Campari is a bitter liqueur at 25% ABV on LWC’s UK listing, with orange, herbal and woody notes on its product page. Sweet vermouth is an aromatised wine of around 16%, our working figure, flavoured with herbs and spices, with vanilla and dried fruit in the richer styles.
Poured equal, each covers the other. The vermouth rounds the bitterness and brings body; the Campari gives the wine an edge it lacks alone. With no spirit and no soda between them, this is the plainest way to taste what the whole family is made from.
The Vermouth Decides It
Vermouth is wine, and it oxidises once the bottle is open. We keep ours in the fridge for a few weeks; on a warm shelf it turns flat and stale far sooner.
In a Negroni the gin hides some of that. Here the vermouth is half the glass, which makes its condition the largest single variable in the drink. Buy small bottles and finish them.
One Base, Four Drinks
The Milano-Torino and the drinks built on it
Milano-Torino (ours)
- Campari
- 45ml
- Sweet vermouth
- 45ml
- Added
- Nothing; ice only
- UK units
- About 1.8
Americano
- Campari
- 30ml
- Sweet vermouth
- 30ml
- Added
- 75ml soda water
- UK units
- About 1.2
Negroni Sbagliato
- Campari
- 30ml
- Sweet vermouth
- 30ml
- Added
- 30ml prosecco
- UK units
- About 1.6
Negroni
- Campari
- 30ml
- Sweet vermouth
- 30ml
- Added
- 30ml gin
- UK units
- About 2.4
| Drink | Campari | Sweet vermouth | Added | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milano-Torino (ours) | 45ml | 45ml | Nothing; ice only | About 1.8 |
| Americano | 30ml | 30ml | 75ml soda water | About 1.2 |
| Negroni Sbagliato | 30ml | 30ml | 30ml prosecco | About 1.6 |
| Negroni | 30ml | 30ml | 30ml gin | About 2.4 |
How to Serve It
Short, over large cubes in a rocks glass, with an orange slice seated in the glass. It is an aperitivo, for the hour before dinner.
To taste the family in order, make a Mi-To, then an Americano, then a Negroni, and drink them side by side.
For the same base with soda, make an Americano; with gin, a Negroni; with prosecco, a Negroni Sbagliato.
Make it at home
The Spirit
CampariCampari is a red Italian bitter liqueur, 25% ABV in the UK on a wholesaler’s listing, made in the style Difford’s Guide describes: an infusion of herbs and fruit in alcohol and water. Campari dates it to 1860 and Gaspare Campari; the Oxford Companion has Gaspare setting up in Novara in 1856 and moving to Milan in 1862. Its bitterness anchors the Negroni and the Americano, and lengthened with soda over ice it needs nothing else.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Milano-Torino?
How is it related to the Americano and the Negroni?
Where does the Milano-Torino come from?
Which sweet vermouth should I use?
Can I use Aperol instead of Campari?
How strong is a Milano-Torino?
Sources.
Checked between 18 October and 19 October 2026.
- Difford’s Guide, “Milano Torino (Mi-To)” (secondary source: created in the 1860s by Gaspare Campari at his Caffè Campari, Milan; named for Campari from Milan and rosso vermouth from Turin; AKA Mi-To).
- Punch, “The Easy Mi-To Cocktail Unlocks Negronis, Americanos and More” (secondary source: shortened to Mi-To; born in the 1860s at Gaspare Campari’s café in Milan).
- Campari, “Our history” (producer’s history: 1860 Gaspare Campari; 1867 Caffè Campari in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II).
- Difford’s Guide, “The history of the Negroni” (secondary source: Milano-Torino said to date from the 1860s at Gaspare Campari’s café; Casoni 1919 account; Gaz Regan on the chain from Milano-Torino to Americano to Negroni).
- Elvezio Grassi (1936), Internet Archive, “1000 Misture” (primary source (Italian): a Milano-Torino Cocktail in the author’s series, shaken, and a Milano Torino classic aperitif of 20% Campari, 20% Cinzano red vermouth and 60% soda).
- LWC, “Campari 70cl” (UK wholesaler listing: Alcohol By Volume 25%).
- Aperol, “Frequently Asked Questions” (producer’s FAQ: Aperol has an alcohol content of 11%).
- Campari, “Campari Bitter” (producer’s product page: herbal, orange and floral notes; orange, herbs and wood on the palate).
- Carpano (Fratelli Branca Distillerie), “Antica Formula” (producer’s page, in Italian: vanilla bouquet, dried fruit, spice; rich, vanilla taste with bitter orange, dates, cocoa beans and saffron).
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Americano
An Americano is 30ml Campari and 30ml sweet vermouth built over ice in a highball, topped with 75ml of cold soda and stirred once, with an orange slice. Bitter and sweet in equal measure, lengthened with soda: a Negroni with soda in place of the gin, at about half the alcohol. It grew out of the Milano-Torino, Campari from Milan with vermouth from Turin, which Difford’s Guide says Gaspare Campari created in the 1860s at his Caffè Campari in Milan. Difford’s adds that soda was said to have been added later, to make the Americano. The vermouth decides the result. At equal volume with the Campari it has nowhere to hide, and in our experience an opened bottle that has stood at room temperature for months will flatten the drink. Keep it in the fridge.
Negroni
A Negroni is 30ml each of gin, Campari and sweet vermouth, stirred with ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained over fresh ice in a rocks glass, with an orange peel expressed over the top. About 2.4 UK units. The measures are the IBA’s; the IBA builds the drink in the glass and garnishes it with half an orange slice. Difford’s Guide gives the most widely reported account: Florence in 1919, at the Casoni Bar, where the bartender Fosco Scarselli is said to have replaced the soda in Count Camillo Negroni’s Americano with gin. The Oxford Companion has the drink named in a surviving letter of October 1920 and then absent under that name until 1947. A French book of 1929 by Alimbau and Milhorat, in the Internet Archive’s scan, gives equal parts of the three as the Campari Mixte. Each third has a job. Gin gives strength and juniper, the red bitter gives bitterness and orange, and the vermouth gives body and sugar. With no juice or soda in the glass, a tired vermouth shows at once.
Negroni Sbagliato
A Negroni Sbagliato is 30ml of Campari and 30ml of sweet vermouth stirred briefly over ice in a rocks glass, topped with 30ml of cold brut prosecco poured down the side, with an orange slice. About 1.6 UK units, two thirds of a Negroni’s. Sbagliato means mistaken. Campari’s own page dates it to 1972, at Bar Basso in Milan, when Mirko Stocchetto, asked for a Negroni, poured prosecco instead of gin; Difford’s Guide puts it in the late 1980s and says it is still served at Bar Basso today with spumante. Bar Basso’s own page writes the name as Negroni Sbagliato® and calls it the bar’s “real trademark drink”. It sits on the rung between an Americano and a Negroni: bitter and vermouth-rich like both, with wine’s body and a fine sparkle where the soda or the gin would be. The bubbles are the fragile part, so the prosecco goes in last and is barely stirred.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026