Pellegrino

I drink a lot of things, most of them water. I wake up in the morning only after a cup filled with Folger's Coffee and heart-stopping real cream has made its way past my lips. A second cup accompanies two eggs, over easy, with a half slice of heated pita on the side. On the way to work I guzzle a bottle of Ice Mountain, to keep me moisturized. During the day I stop ever so often for a gulp from a second Ice Mountain. Lunch, something Sonoma Dietish, is washed down with an Ice Mountain chaser.

Once home, I am finally able to let myself go and indulge in the best this world has to offer: chilled or room temperature San Pellegrino, sparkling natural mineral water, bubbling all the way down. I love Pellegrino water and drink it all the time, or as often as I can at home and away, as my preferred beverage. Each time I am at a cafe or restaurant, and the waiter asks that question my family has come to dread, "Can I get you something?" I wonder if they have Pellegrino, and while some do, most don't. I am visibly disappointed and settle for water, regular water with a twist of lemon or lime. I feel deprived.

Though I have never run out of Pellegrino, and have four cases in waiting at the moment, I dread the day the cases would be empty. Each case holds twelve large green glass bottles -- each bottle holds 25.3 fluid ounces and lasts three hours. I have four bottles on my granite counter at any given moment, waiting for me. I am always ready for the sparkling effervescence of this remarkable beverage that contains 12 % of my daily calcium requirement per bottle. I am ready to treat myself to the joy others experience from wine, but I can't drink wine--I get migraines--so Pellegrino is my wine.

A bottle of Pellegrino is a work of art, holding a remarkable treasure, only found in Milan, Italy. And while a case is costly, it is worth it, one gulp at a time.