52Brews in Europe Part 1: Italy

I was fortunate enough to join my wife and her family on a two week trip through Europe last month. This was an absolutely incredible experience - I owe eternal thanks to my in-laws for making it all possible. 

We traveled through Italy, Belgium, and England; I snapped photos at every turn, amassing about 2200 in total. While I'll spare you the thrill of that endless slide show, I will share some of the highlights with you as I tell my tale. I decided to split up the story into three parts, and it begins with Italy. 

Arriving in Italy

A glance out of the airplane window revealed the glorious landscape of the French Alps as we neared our destination of Milan. We arrived at Malpensa international airport on Saturday morning local time, after an 8 hour flight. 

It took us another several hours to reach Venice, including a 2~3 hours in train rides, a 10 minute cab ride, a short boat trip, and - oh yes -  twenty minutes or so to find my wife's parents whom we um... temporarily misplaced in Milan Central Station. That was fun. 

Milano CentraleMilano Centrale was impressively large - one might say, easy to get lost in - and bustling with busy city folk. This is the kind of place a person wants to keep a close eye on any personal belongings. Not to say we felt terribly uncomfortable (hailing from the New York area and all), but being street-wise is helpful in a city of this caliber. 

After a marathon of travel over seemingly every mode of possible transportation, we finally found our way to Venice. This was my first time in Italy, but the canals of Venice felt somehow strangely familiar - perhaps the engrained allure from the silver screen, or photos from friends' and family's prior trips. Still, the sights were breathtaking in person. With the delirium of 14 hour travel-lag and 90+ degree muggy weather setting in, I stood a-gaze in awe of the peace and majesty of such a curious place. There are only so many locations on Earth one can experience life where boat is the primary means of travel, and cars have no place in the central city.

Food and Drink in Venice

We stayed in a hotel near Saint Mark's Basilica in the center of the city. Many of the restaurants on the main canal offered menus of a similar theme. Seafood is the star, with many places offering locally caught seabass, squid and cuttlefish. Risottos, pastas, and some meats compose the entrees, but rarely with red tomato sauces, as most of the menus featured aged balsamic, olive oil, butter, and cream-based sauces - I understand this is somewhat typical of the Northern Italian region. Assorted cheeses and dried meats are offered as antipasti while panna cotta, gelato and espresso/cappuccino decorated the dessert lists. 

Good food was at every turn in Venice. Some of our dining highlights included thin-crust pizza loaded with every imaginable cured meat - and one that was even topped with a fried egg (delicious!). Venice is great for cicchetti: small plates and tiny sandwiches with fish or cured meats; and on our final night in town we went out for dinner based on a recommendation-- we asked to dine "where the locals eat". I enjoyed sardines, cuttlefish, and bakala - a fantastic taste of local cuisine. Other favorite good eats included mountains of shellfish over risotto, and similarly, grilled seafood over pasta, during a day trip to Burano. 

Now, Italy isn't known as a great stop for beer lovers... and I'm not going to contest that fact. Becks was one of the most common finds on tap, and a couple of common Italian brews included Menabrea and Theresianer. The Italian beers were found in both pale and amber form, neither all that more memorable than the other. The Theresianer, however, I do remember enjoying more - and the amber over the pale. 

The drink of choice at most of the restaurants was, of course, vino. Plenty of cheap house reds and whites were flowing with every meal. During our stay we enjoyed the famous Peach Bellinis at Harry's Bar. And while I never did get around to sampling some grapa (the heat wave was less than inspiring), our recurring go-to became the Aperol spritz. 

If you've never sampled Aperol, well... you're in for a bitter surprise. Aperol is a liqueur containing (according to Wikipedia) bitter orange, gentian, rhubarb, and cinchona. It tastes somewhat like Compari and makes a spritz when combined with white wine and sparkling water over ice, then topped with an olive or orange slice to finish. It is somewhat an acquired taste, but generally (and most importantly) cheap and accessible. 

My wife, her brother, and I journeyed into Venice near Academia late one night to find some signs of life post-midnight. Much to our pleasure, the college area was buzzing with life and $2 Aperol Spritz. It was also here that we found a small Irish pub serving Murphy's Stout among other things and - my favorite part - they offered us a to-go cup as they closed shop around 2 in the morning. Life is different when there are no cars around, and Venice knows how to have a good time! 

Varenna

The second leg of our Italian trip was to Varenna - a village about an hour from Lake Como nestled at the base of a beautiful mountainscape. Our hotel was actually one of the highest points in the area, built into the side of the mountain and overlooking the town. 

The pace is much slower in Varenna, and English is scarce. It didn't matter to us a whole heck of a lot, as our patio view offered the most gorgeous backdrop I could have ever asked for. The hot weather held up for our entire stay there, with only one day breaking for rain. 

The food in Varenna echoed some of the other cuisine we experienced in Venice: risotto, locally caught fish, dry-cured meats and salamis. Some highlights included a three course prix fixe at La Vista Ristorante that provided a truly fine-dining experience. This dinner introduced me to the best pea soup I've ever eaten (topped with crispy pancetta... or BACON for the layman), and an amazing, memorable Moscato D'Asti from Ca'Bianca. 

Additional day trips yielded great meals - one in Lugano, Switzerland where seafood risotto, balsamic gnocchi and veal scaloppini in a tuna sauce stood out among the lunch plates. Notably there was a Carlsberg or two served with lunch. I mention it only because technically it is beer and this is, after all, a beer blog. We did pass a cool little beer shop in Lugano - this might be the only shop of its kind that I noticed while in the Italy area, featuring a good number of Belgians and Trappists. 

A lunch in Belaggio consisted of an assortment of cold antipasti and wine tasting in a quaint little place built like a brick cave into the side of a mountain. The prosciutto hanging from the ceiling beckoned like the call of a familiar old friend. 

The actual town of Varenna did feature a couple of cafe/bars, and one with a better-than-average beer list. Unfortunately this is where I stumbled on La Biere Du Demon - a French strong ale with little more to offer than high alcohol content. This is one of the worst beers I've sampled in recent history - let's consider it the French Steel Reserve. There was a decent macro witte on tap, however; Wieckse Witte brewed in the Netherlands by Heineken. In hot, muggy temperatures a nice crisp wheat is always a welcome companion. 

While the beer selection maxed out at about a dozen on even the most extensive lists, signature cocktails were aplenty and wine choices rarely disappointed.

Let me be perfectly clear: at no point did the rarity of microbrews impede on good times being had. Venice and Varenna are beautiful beyond words; and while my lack of phone/internet access did test me to new limits, I am ever grateful for having visited, and appreciative for my time spent. I should hope I am blessed enough in life to again face the opportunity to travel to Italy. 

We traveled back to Milan to catch a flight to Brussels. From there we took a car service to historic Bruges, where we spent the next few days. We more than made up for the modest beer consumption in Italy. More on our Belgian trip with the next post. Until then, grazie mille - arrivederci!