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There are days when since the night before I know exactly what I’ll write on Beer Chronicles. There are other days when instead I have not the slightest idea about it and I found myself combing through archives and websites to find some interesting information. I presume I’m always dealing with challenging issues basing on the reviews I get on the blog and sometimes I simply prefer to remain silent rather than get nowhere. I think that this is a compulsory rule to ensure a good quality product. Too bad that apparently not everyone think the same way. I am referring to the article published yesterday on the Roman version of Repubblica.it, where Laura Mari has offered a formidable example of tabloid journalism and misinformation.

The article focuses on the alleged situation that is lived in Via Benedetta, one of the many alleys of Trastevere, a district of Rome known for being one of the more attractive precincts for nightlife. Italian and foreign beer enthusiasts know this alley for hosting, within a few meters, two pure beer temples: Ma che siete venuti a fà and bir&fud. So what has happened in Via Benedetta? The delirious article tries to explain it. Here some highlights:

Is not enough to ask permission to get to the door of one’s house. You must wait until the mass of young drunks flow, some sitting on the ground, others standing still in the middle of the street, and agree to let the inhabitants of the neighborhood to go their way.

All customers are regardless defined as “drunkards”, but what is most striking is that the problem is the mere fact of sitting on the floor or even to stand still in the middle of the road. It’s like saying that chatting on the street, relaxing or even have fun (God may forgive us!) are behaviors to be avoided. This aspect should not be underestimated because neo-prohibitionist trend is going too far: after the a priori demonization of beer and alcohol, is now focusing on the concept of amusement in general.

In these days Pete Brown is doing a wonderful job on his blog, trying to refute point by point all the accusations of conformist neo-prohibitionists. I was particularly struck by this post which stresses how a commercial against alcohol abuse misuses an image without a direct correlation with the topic: it depicts three cheeky girls having fun, probably photographed during a party. What’s alcohol got to do with it? Beware, because the focus is shifting: the problem is not alcohol, but fun. A dangerous concept that is likely to go unnoticed.

Back to article:

What is striking above all is the noise. Continuous, chaotic, relentless. It’s the din of hundreds of people, all together shouting, laughing, squawking. The noise of young people calling one another from side to side and then, alcohol-stricken, singing chants and tavern’s ditties.

False. Anything like this in Via Benedetta. Fortunately, those blessed 20 meters are so well known by Italian fans as to enable many to note the bias of this information. Obvious that sometimes some guy could be rude, as well as a certain party could be noisier than other, but the portrait offered by the journalist is a clear and instrumental exaggeration. Whoever went even just once at Ma che siete venuti a fà or bir&fud have noticed that is just people sipping a beer in peace, talking with friends.

Further:

Then there’s the creaking of the premises’ rusted shutters that after two in the morning are lowered but not completely shut. Because in this way young people can enter, even after closing time, to buy some beer for consumption on the road.

As you may know, in the mentioned premises is impossible to drink after 2 a.m. The bir&fud’s taps turn off long before this time. The rule applies to everyone, without any exception. The shameful photos attached to the article (in a Mafia inquiry style) show someone who enters and leaves Ma che siete venuti a fà with the half-lowered shutter: is one of the publicans, bringing the garbage bucket inside the premises.

And here is a further particularly brilliant passage:

To the mass of people shoving between the buildings the tables of the premises must be added. Few indeed, but enough to add more chaos to chaos. And in case of emergency, the passage of emergency vehicles is absolutely impossible.

Over people who “shove between the buildings” I draw a merciful veil. Sounds somewhat like a Metallica gig. The pure conjecture of the journalist about ambulance transit just makes me laugh. Cars pass even on weekends, undeniably slow – alas! poor car drivers… – the same would be for ambulances or firemen.

Maybe I’m spending too many lines about an issue that does not even deserve to be published in tabloids. But it is important to provide the right point of view, otherwise misinformation could seriously mislead. Via Benedetta it’s just a narrow alley like many others in Rome centre. It hosts 4 premises, two of them worldly renowned and worshipped as beer temples. Premises that any beer and food lover in Rome cannot miss, indicated and awarded by so many Italian and foreigners gourmet books and guides. They have won highly prestigious awards (not least the Gambero Rosso Oscar), and host a quiet and heterogeneous clientele. Above all are premises working within the rules of the common coexistence and which do not deserve to be defamed by an article of low, inferior journalism.