Preprandial drink provided by a retiring salesman, Italian (8)
I believe the answer is:
aperitif
'preprandial drink' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'provided by a retiring salesman italian' is the wordplay.
'provided' becomes 'if'.
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'a retiring salesman' becomes 'aper' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'italian' becomes 'it'.
'aper'+'it'='aperit'
'if' put after 'aperit' is 'APERITIF'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for aperitif that I've seen before include "Alcoholic drink taken before meal" , "it's served before dinner" , "An alcoholic drink before dinner, an appetiser" , "If pirate may have a drink before dinner?" , "Appetite stimulant drink" .)