Aquastore in Rome
by Christine Lepisto, Berlin on 07.24.05
If you have travelled through Rome's main train station recently, you may have noticed a well-lit, modern store selling nothing but...water. You have arrived at the AQUA Store. We can forgive the inefficiency of bottled water over the excellent water available from the tap (the Romans have a long history of bringing water efficiently to the people after all), in light of the fact that even healthy, tasty water can give a traveller unaccustomed to the local microscopic beasties a bit of a belly-ache. It is unfortunate, though, that with a plethora of Italian waters available, the AQUA store finds it necesary to offer famous brands imported from France, Germany and the UK among others.
But the AQUA store is more than just a water bar:
Clear descriptions in great technical detail on panels throughout the store facilitate selection from amongst the multitude of brands displayed. And if that is not enough, service agents stand ready to advise on which water is best for a queasy tummy or to fuel a hike of the seven hills. Or which water will taste best with your Aubergine sandwich, or with the pasta and pesto recipe you are planning to use to impress your Italian friends. (Advisory warning: there is a school of thought among some Italians that drinking water with a meal dilutes the stomach's juices and causes bad digestion. In such a case: serve a glass of water with the expresso, after the meal.)
In addition to offering a refreshing, healthy and natural beverage to the tired masses thronging through Rome's Termini train station, AQUA Store offers an interactive informative/educational experience through the touch-screen "AQUA" software designed under the direction of Dr. Alessandro Zanasi, Professsor of Hydrology and member of the Italian national association "Risorsa Acqua" (Water Resource), a branch of the International Water Academy in Oslo, Norway. The multimedia program acquaints visitors and customers with the secrets of water and includes a test which will answer the most important question: which is the ideal water for me? This question is answered with consideration of a person's culinary habits, lifestyle, possible illnesses or maladies. Additionally, the service agents at the store are
So if you get to Rome, join the 1500 visitors daily who stop by the AQUA store. And until then, if you read Italian, check out the AQUA store web site here.
Wacky. The comercialization and packaging of one of the most common elements on the planet: marketing is truly the magick of our time.
Re: water and "acid dilution"--I used to hang about with a group of New Agey types who believed the same thing (mainly because a 102-year old Buddhist monk named Bhante told them so).
However--the body regulates itself to maintain the proper PH throughout, which is necessary for every aspect of biochemical functioning.
If water could actually change the PH of our stomachs, we'd all be dead.
Or, rather, we'd never have evolved in the first place...
it kind of breaks my heart that in a city with some of the most wonderful *free* and abundant water fountains that this sort of store exists. just think of the waste produced by all of those bottles. as "fashion water" becomes the norm of the upper classes, the imperitive to protect safe drinking water diminishes among a group with influence - further jeopardizing an already threatened resource.
Where exactly is the treehugger element of this article? I'm not seeing it.