
So it seems that after many years of ambivalent spritz drinking, I have finally arrived! My friend Giuliomaria, the real author of the "spritz rules" was, as ever, 100% right.
The Spritz Rules:
WHAT? What was that you said? You don't like Spritz???! Would you like to know a secret? Neither do I! Fortunately, there is a cure for the affliction of not liking spritz. Know what it is? More Spritz! Doesn't work that way with vegetables does it? Every bell pepper I taste is worse than the last…
I heard a lot of spritz wisdom at Taverna Ciardi as a I grimaced-down an oh-so-bitter artichoke spritz. That spritz was nicknamed "Giulio's Friend" and the wise man who made it was Giuliomaria. Now, I'm going to share with you a little of the spritz wisdom that Giuliomaria shared with me:
No one is born liking spritz, but we all have a capacity to learn to love it. Man's relationship with spritz goes like this:
- 1st Spritz- Don't like it.
- 2nd Spritz- Was offered to you by a friend so you're obliged to drink it.
- 3rd Spritz- Everyone else is having one and you don't want to go against the grain.
- 4th Spritz- You're hooked.
- After 10 years of drinking Spritz- You're an honorary Venetian Citizen. Wait a second... Could I get that in writing?
Grazie mille (or Grassy Milly if that's how it comes out) Giuliomaria! We've learned to love glamor and grit, fellow tourists, snow, fog, rain, climbing stairs & fog horns. Now, thank goodness, we can also love relaxing and mulling it all over with a spritz!