Italian Beer Series: Birracrua Montecrocetta (Vicenza)

Birracrua is Vicenza's only brewery within its city limits. They usually produce (frankly, not so special) session beers, but in typical Italian gastronomic fashion they also produce limited beers made with seasonal ingredients. The brewery's autumn beer, Montecrocetta is named after the street that runs past the brewery and definitely the star of my recent visit. This 7% ABV beer is indicative of the American-style freewheeling approach the Italians have to beer--ingredients include mielo di castagna (literally "chestnut honey", could be bought in grocery stores as a spreadable jam not unlike nutella), Czech malt and hops, and Belgian yeast. The beer's heady floral and honey scent is so pleasant that it was still apparent despite the beer's minuscule frothing. The dark red/amber color has a prominent body but not so much as to coat the mouth like a stout. The taste is amazing and complex: a malty and grainy start, that turns fruity with hints of apple, that finishes off with a complementary mellow bitterness. The beer is not sweet at all, with the honey added more for the aroma than flavor. A great beer, and definitely worth a try. I bought an extra bottle to check how well this beer ages. We'll see.

Lodz

Some time ago, I was in a place where my main form of entertainment was watching CNN International and experiencing real life through hand-picked news segments by the news channel. During commercial breaks, they would constantly play the commercial above, enticing the viewer to discover this place somewhere in Central Europe that is pronounced remarkably different from how it is spelled. Would you in Lodz? Would I what? It didn't matter, as I became more bombarded by the commercial, I cared less about what exactly I was supposed to be doing in Lodz, I just wanted to do it there. It seemed so exciting, so lively and so full of energy.

A year on, I finally "would" Lodz. I feel cheated. I guess I was supposed to "would" a depressing city filled with crumbling secessionist buildings and industrial growth made defunct by decline in its post-industrial state. Everything was rundown, nothing was spared. Even buildings that must have had its fresh coat of paint not a few years ago are already aging. One rounds a corner, and things become more depressing and more hopeless.

One of the city's claim to fame is its very long market street, Piotrkowska, filled with bars, restaurants, and alcohol shops (that look a bit more upmarket than the liquor stores back home, especially Piwoteka, which offers a number of regional Polish beers). It's actually a great street if it was well capitalized. But I suspect that with the rise of Manufaktura (a vast mall--supposedly the largest in Europe--that the local tourist bureau calls a "cultural center") foot traffic shifted a block away from the street and what I was witnessing is the street's slow decline. On a Saturday night when the bars should be buzzing like those in Nowy Swiat in Warsaw, the street is dead except for a few drunk teenagers, ambling intoxicated homeless men, and preening old women in fur coats. There was a mini parade of girls on stilts wearing angel wings, but instead of commotion, people just turned and stared as if those wings were just sorely out of place.

At the northwestern end of Piotrkowska right next to the gate to Manufaktura is the Poznanski Palace, a palatial residence made by the man responsible for Lodz even existing. See, Lodz has been around before Kalman Poznanski entered the scene, but it was for all intents and purposes a mere sleepy town. But Poznanski was an industrialist with an idea: Lodz was right in the middle of Western and Eastern Europe, perfect for transporting and manufacturing goods on the cheap. What he specialized in was textile, and by the end of the 19th century the town has grown from a few tens of thousands to roughly 600,000. All of this literally was at the service of the glorified industrial zone that Poznanski created. But although Lodz likes to call this palace the "Versailles of Lodz", it's far from a palace, more like a bourgeois mansion straight out of Detroit.

For what it's worth, Lodz actually exudes a sort of a dilapidated charm, a city rich in art nouveau but poor in attention. If one thinks about it, Lodz is like Venice, without the hordes of tourists or the grandeur of being the last vestige of a long gone powerful empire, itself on the slippery slope to deterioration and ultimate destruction. Lodz only represents the uber-pragmatism of an industrial city built solely for that purpose, but the purpose for which is long outlived by the remnants built to serve it. A shadow is cast over the city, like it is secretly longing for its glory days, but impotent to act upon that desire.

The days of Lodz being in the shadows of Warsaw or Krakow is apparently about to end: steering away from the romanticism of its neighbors, Lodz is looking at contemporary art and music, avante-garde films, and modern shopping complexes to revitalize it. At the same token, it is aggressively trying to lure young entrepreneurs willing to build on top of the heap new factories, new housing complexes, and new strip malls. To an extent, I don't think their commercials lied; they just focused it on the banal. Lodz has a gloom akin to Genova or Torino, but its marketers do not know how to market it. All in all it should be good for the city, but I'm sure it will also lose that nostalgia of a faded beauty in exchange for an L.A. makeover.

Italian Beer Series: Castello (Udine)

Castello, produced in Udine, recently just went through a makeover to jazz-up its image as a homely brew from the Slavic part of Italy. You can still find its old straightforward label (as I did), but the new labels are also around--more energetic, young, and for the drink-til-you-pass-out crowd. Despite all that, the beer is nothing to air-guitar about. It's characterized by a mellow hoppy smell with strong carbonation and medium body. Upon pouring, the beer has a light amber color and the froth is light and transient. Beer itself is nothing special, with a very slight sweetness and pleasant bitter aftertaste.

Busa di Novegno Snow Hike

Busa Novegno is usually known for its rolling hills, lots of malge, and WWI-related trails and caves, but we hiked today to the top of Busa di Novegno for one purpose: to see a winter wonder land when snow has not yet descended upon the Vicentino plains. We got more than we bargained for, and most of the day was spent desperately tying to keep warm, keep dry, and keep the snow from getting into our eyes. But I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, a good hike and perfect for a solitary day in the snow.

Lago di Trasimeno (Umbria)

The northern shores of Lake Trasimene is an agricultural paradise: quiet, with the surrounding rolling hills filled with olive groves and vineyards. In the morning, a thick mist blankets the quasi-valley, making the atmosphere more peaceful and quieter still. But one could tell by the names of the surrounding towns the bloody past of this small piece of flat land: Sanguineto, Ossaia, Pian di Marte. This was the location of one of the earliest and most successful military ambushes in history, in a battle between Hannibal's Carthaginian forces against Flaminius' Roman army. In a matter of three hours, almost 20,000 men died and more were sold into slavery. Hannibal's victory was decisive and have been remembered throughout history despite a persistent campaign by Rome to erase him and his aggression from history. Agriturismo owners nowadays don't sell their products with Flaminius' face--Annibale's is plastered onto everything bottled sold by these farms.

I wonder, what would he think of his legacy, now that his name is being used to sell quality wine and olive oil?

Italian Beer Series: Moretti Baffo d'Oro

Top shelf Moretti that costs as much as a four-pack of the regular stuff. According to Birra Moretti, Baffo d'Oro is 100% barley perfect for "drinking with old friends". Sure, if they like beer that smells like somebody's crotch. Immediately after opening the bottle, one instantly notices the beer's odd and very strong odor. It's barley with a side of Pepe le Pew. It has a strong, slightly cloudy amber color and a big and lasting head. The body is rich with hints of caramel. A slight bitterness holds throughout and becomes very unpleasant at the end. No matter how premium of a Moretti this one is, it's still a Moretti in its vast abilities to disappoint.

Movies in Italy: Voyages in Italy (Roberto Rosselini, 1954)

A film about the disintegration of an upper class English couple set in Naples, this film was originally considered a failure, Rosselini's cementing of his turn away from neorealism towards plotless stories about the upper class. The Italian and American critics hated it, but the French loved it, with Rivette proclaiming, "With the appearance of "Viaggio in Italia', all films have suddenly aged ten years". Although I would disagree that this film was as radical a shift from the films that came before it, it is definitely a departure from the typical products of the time. Rosselini does not use a traditional three-part narrative to portray the conflict between husband and wife. Instead, it is unfolded through their interactions with Naples: with its copious pregnant women, religious fervor, ancient ruins, and affinity for catacombs for the dead--almost a teaser for the far radical departure in narrative that will be introduced by Antonioni five years later. Some may think that the ending is abrupt and contrived, but do notice the actual ending: the film cuts away from the protagonists into a random street scene, which says a lot about what the filmmaker is really thinking about this "relationship".