I do not drink. There is an assumption in Western civilisation that if you don't drink, you are either a humourless wowser, or a recovering alcoholic. My reason is much simpler; I cannot stand the taste of alcohol.

I have but one regret in this; I would indeed enjoy being able to savour wines. Not to get intoxicated by them, not even to get slightly tipsy; if I want to do that, I'll take a train up to the top of the mountain (as I have done twice in Europe now, as of February 2023) and enjoy the effect of the reduced oxygen supply.

No, simply to experience the different tastes and varieties of wines without gagging and needing to flush my mouth out with a firehose for 40 minutes.

I am of course an exception. In Italia in particular, many people greatly enjoy the varieties of wines grown there, along with the tastes of some of the fine foods. And thus we have stores like this; Vini (wines) and Sapori (tastes) at Via Vitruvio, 11. Including the taste of chocolate! At the time that I took this shot, the business was 4 years short of its centenary. Writing as I am coming up to 7 years later, that centenary has already passed and as far as I can tell the company is still in business.

Also they're doing it old-style. They don't even seem to have a website, simply a Faceplant page that they might make a post on every few months. Clearly, word-of-mouth and foot traffic keeps them nicely afloat.

And I do love the artistry in their shutters; I'm actually glad that I was here before they opened and these shutters were rolled up for the day.