In Heaven There is No...

In heaven there is no beer

That’s why we drink it here (Right here!)

And when we’re gone from here

Someone else will be drinking all the beer

                                    Ernst Neubach and Ralph Maria Siegel (1956)

                                    English lyrics by Art Walunas

One of the comments we heard most while preparing for the trip had to do with the opportunity to drink and savor Italian wine.  Unfortunately, neither of us are big wine drinkers.  I intend to sample the wine of Italy while here, but Shelley is a proud and devoted beer drinker, and has no interest in sampling or substituting wine.

Our question, then, was whether that would place us among a distinct, and perhaps even persecuted, minority in Italy.  There may be no beer in heaven, but is there beer in Italy? And if not, does that therefore make Italy heaven?

We knew that Italian beer exists, and even sampled Peroni back in the states, but we have been pleased to see that drinking beer in public is pretty common (at least at the places where we hang out).  We have thus far been out to several cafes and restaurants, and in each instance beer seemed as popular as wine.

We have enjoyed Italian beers Peroni, Moretti, and Menebrea.  Shelley tends to order draft, so she has had German beer a couple of times, while our first night here I ended up drinking Corona.  What we haven’t seen is any evidence of American beer.

That raises a second issue.  At home I drink a fair amount of Coke Zero, and the question was whether I could find a substitute while here.  When I was in Italy briefly 13 years ago I don’t remember seeing Coca Cola products, but remember drinking a lemon soda that was refreshing.  I caught a glimpse of one at a café the other day, but Coke--and Coke Zero—are easy to find.  A week ago, when we had first arrived and were unable to reach the apartment owner, one of the things that kept me sane was having a Coke Zero while waiting.

Then there’s the water.  At a restaurant when you receive water you are asked if you want “gas” or “no gas,” that is, carbonated or not.  When we first went to the supermarket and bought a bottle of water, we unintentionally bought “with gas,” and only because Shelley can’t stand to waste money we drank it in misery for two days to get rid of it.  It tastes like seltzer water, and we would have been happier if we had something to mix with it.  Once the bottle was empty we have been following the example of the locals and refilling at the public water fountains around town.  The water supposedly comes from the mountains between Pisa and Lucca and is supposed to be better than the tap water.

Hard to believe we’ve been here for a week.  In a subsequent post I’ll talk about some food differences between home and here.