The crawl of Rome

In an age of beery uncertainty -- when the consensus of the craft era is, if not completely dismantled, then at least creaking with important bits falling off -- it's nice that some certainties remain. I've developed a newfound appreciation of the beers and bars I discovered in the early years of this blog, and before, which are still operating despite the barbarians being inside the gates. So it was especially pleasing to arrive into Rome and discover that two of its fondly-remembered institutions are still going, same as ever.Open Baladin is one of them. I first visited this outpost of the Piedmontese brewery in 2014, and was impressed. The place has rather more of a worn-in look now (don't we all?) but the range of beers is still excellent. I started with Alla Ceca, a Czech-style lager and indeed a collaboration with the Budvar people, who do seem to be getting around a bit these days. Their international collaborations never seem to be as good as the original, however, and this…