Growing up Jewish in the former dominion of popes, you learn to quickly grow desensitized to the many streets, towns, or companies named after Catholic concepts or saints.;
That’s why the water of choice in my parents' home is and has always been:
Egeria: L' Acqua Santa di Roma.
I leave the translation to your imagination.
There was a strong mineral water culture in our house. No matter the weather, there always were bottles of water in the fridge, ready for a quick pour.
The water was delivered directly to our home in cases of glass bottles from the water store across the street, and later from the water store right by the mercato, the open-air market.
I'm sure they carried other drinks and various brands of water, but we only drank Egeria, Acqua Santa di Roma, every day of the year but Pesach.
According to our family’s unwritten rules, one had to deposit the empty bottles in the cases stored outside on the porch. The water guy would deliver fresh cases and retrieve the empties on predetermined days. Something like the milk deliveries of old.
Egeria came from an ancient natural spring outside Rome, long believed to have healing properties. The water was and still is, naturally effervescent. I preferred the green-labeled bottles of natural water, the fizziness being so slight as to be barely noticeable. I have never been one for bubbled drinks.
Many of my family members preferred the blue labeled bottles which contained some additional, artificially added fizz.
You might wonder how we distinguished between the two types of water in our daily routine. Simple enough. My sister came up with monikers that made perfect sense to us at the time. In retrospect, they're hilarious in their absurdity.
The extra-effervescent water was known to us as 'shtarke vasser', or strong water. This makes some sense considering the punch offered by the fizz. But the naturally effervescent, almost flat water was 'kalte vasser', kalt, of course, meaning cold.
Both types of water were served cold, as I've already mentioned, but children are not always concerned with facts and logic. These names stuck, and we used them for years.
You truly can’t beat the taste of Italian mineral water from a fresh spring, and it spoiled us for life. My siblings and I suffer in exile.
Egeria also sells water in plastic water bottles of various sizes, and the company has branched out into other products as well.
You can read the history of the spring here https://www.egeria.it/en/history/