Luca Picchi (nickname “il Conte”) started working in a Disco when he was fourteen. He went to University of Pisa and at the same time, worked as a Bartender until 1993.Later he moved to Elba Island and opened a Cocktail bar and Restaurant. In 1996 he moved to Florence and started to teach for AIBES (Italian Association of Bartenders) and started working at the historic café Rivoire 1872.At that moment he began the research on the origin of Negroni cocktail. He won a lot of bartenders’ competitions and after became a bartenders’ competition judge. In 1999 he published his first book on Negroni cocktail. Year after year his fame grew more and more and now Picchi is considered the greatest expert in the Negroni cocktail and the history of Italian aperitivo. In 2011 at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans with a group of Italian bartenders, he made the biggest Negroni in history. At the Tales in 2015, he presented the new book “Negroni Cocktail”.In 2017 Picchi started working at the famous café Gilli 1733, the second oldest brand in Italy. In 2019 he was elected as the best bar manager in Italy. In the same year with Campari Group, he travelled to 18 countries around the world to celebrate the centenary of Negroni cocktail and participated as the main actor in the film “Looking for Negroni” (RAIstoria).Nowadays he’s the Head Bartender at Gilli 1733 and continues his research activities, mentoring, consulting and competition judging.