Where’s the most exotic place you’ve had a glass of whiskey?

• in La Suverana, one of Julius II’s villas. Had my first experience of grappa there, too, shared by a workman on the premises. He also shared a tosca, a rustic dry cigar like Clint Eastwood smoked in the movies. Both were a little rough but I was grateful for the hospitality. It gave me a tiny window into his culture (the workman, not the pope).
• The little terrace atop the Duomo after a long climb <–nip from a flask, not a glass.

The morning of the duomo climb I’d stood in freezing weather with some old men around a pushcart next to the Baptristry. We ate trippa sandwiches and drank warmed red for breakfast. Also had my first Cuban cigar that day, an R&J Churchill tubo from a local tobacconist.

I was dirt poor at the time (bedroll-and-hostel traveler) but got adopted by a group who was touring on the Italian tourism board’s dime. Best food and drink of my life, and cost me nothing (I paid for the pushcart trippa mentioned above since I was solo on that part of the mission). Also roamed the Vatican complex with the former manservant of John XXIII, IIRC. The Swiss Guards were not amused, and I was surprised to see they carried HK MP5 in private rather than halberds…