One of the things I’m going to miss about Italy this summer is a perfectly draft beer.

Tracie, the girls, and I won’t be going to Italy this summer. That’s partly due to the fact that Tra is so busy with work right now (which is great).

But our absence from our spiritual homeland this season is owed mostly to the fact that we want to spend some extended time in California with my mom.

And… one of my bestest friends and brother by another mother, Jeremy (we even share a name!), is getting married. We are all so excited for him and his bride and we’re also looking forward to the party (Jeremy is part of a well known food-and-wine family and so we know the wedding celebration is going to be off the charts).

One of the things that I’m going to miss about Italy this summer is the perfectly draft beer.

Italians take immense pride in drafting beer properly. The photo of the beer above was taken in Piazza Vittoria in downtown Brescia, at a respectable but hardly noteworthy bar (what we in America would call a café). Despite the anonymity and convenience of the venue, the young person behind the bar delivered the perfectly draft beer.

I first experienced the burgeoning new beer culture and the second coming of unpasteurized beer back in the early 90s when I was playing in a cover band in Veneto.

Today, many of my Italian friends won’t even look at a beer that’s not unpasteurized. And all of them expect and take a good foam for granted.

In my experience (which is vast at this point), the foam enhances the flavor of the beer by making its aromas more prominent. I love drinking beer wherever I am. But a good head on the beer really makes the difference in my humble opinion.

It’s just one of those little things, like a good coffee or expertly sliced prosciutto, that I’m really going to miss.

What are you missing about Italy this summer?