Wine tour of Italy continues...with a big gripe

I've been scouring the hinterlands of Italy, cold and windy (that's just indoors), meeting a lot of great small producers of wine in several regions.  What a wine education it's been.  More to come when -- and this is the cause of this brief, complaining post (God knows I never complain) --

When will I get a decent Internet connection again?

When will Italy get with the 21st Century and make the Internet, oh I don't know, easily accessible. especially wi-fi-wise?  I was talking with Mario Zanusso of I Clivi earlier and he agreed, "Living without the Internet is like living in Pre-history." 

Well, after another winery tour tomorrow, back to Rome to a hotel where they offer excellent wi-fi, where I can write and write and actually download pix from my very own laptop, which I have lugged all over the country for the past 10 days, more or less uselessly.

As to the wineries and the family producers of some thrilling vino, I must admit that it probably is more useful and informative to meet them now than at most other times of the year.  They're stuck in their country fastnesses and are pretty damned happy to see an Americano asking for a taste of their wines.  The intrusion of Yanks and their funny ways breaks the monotony.

And these hospitable people serve you amazing lunches (12 courses or so) of mostly homemade meats, home-grown veggies and just-baked bread and from-scratch sweets to accompany the wines, bacchanals that go on all afternoon, nearly till darkness falls.  Then they may also press you to follow that up with dinner too.  So you stagger out of a restaurant at midnight or later, having spent something like 8-9 hours at table that day. 

No wonder so many importers and other wine folk are, let us say, husky. 

That, sadly, is a huskiness that I am now sharing. 

Comments

[Fredric Koeppel]

The NYTimes this morning ran an A1 story about the deep cultural, psychological and spiritual malaise that has settled over Italy and depressed its population. Though maybe that's only in the cities.

[Terry Hughes]

No, it's everywhere.

Even people who can't stand Beppe Grillo agree with him.

This is not a good period for Italy. Not as bad as the anni di piombo, when the Red Brigades were running amok, but bad.

Come to think of it, this isn't too great of a period in the States, is it?

[Filippo Ronco]

I think there is a relation between the two things...

[Terry Hughes]

You may well be right, Fil.