... pay a visit to this man.

His name is Giovanni Poggi, and he runs La Botticella, an excellent dive bar just off of the Piazza Novona in Rome.

Besides the fact that La Botticella is a favorite among American visitors to Rome to enjoy a drink on the cafe, besides the great service and welcoming atmosphere Giovanni and his staff provide, besides the fact you might catch college students doing body shots or an Israeli girl and a girl from the Bronx singing country music (?), this is why La Botticella rules:

A native of Rome, who attended high school in Canada, Giovanni is among other things, a Pittsburgh afficinado. BNG discovered this quite by accident while out for a stroll on a recent vacation in the Eternal City.

Truth be told, we had just finished lunch and were looking for a place to catch game 5 of the Penguins/Rangers series when we spied this on the street:

Noting the international calling card on the upper left hand side, we strolled in and ordered a Peroni and began chatting up the barkeep, demanding to know who the Steelers fan was.

Indeed it was the owner/proprietor, Giovanni. He's visited the 'Burgh before and has friends in Mt. Lebanon, Washington Co., and Plum Borough. He's attended a Penn State football game and even dined and drank at one of BNG's favorite places, Fathead's on the South Side:

The walls of La Botticella are littered with pennants and bric-a-brac from colleges and sports teams all over North America, courtesy of his many visitors from North America, but the largest and most prominently displayed items are from Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania. Penn State and Duquesne students are a fixture at the place.

And most important were in business to watch Game 5 -- which would end up being the clincher -- from a feed Giovanni subscribes to from the North American Sports Network. And bonus! We got to watch it with other Pittsburghers, the Pepe family from McKeesport & Murrysville, who were also on vacation ...

... and went wild after Marian Hossa scored the series-clinching goal in overtime.

It shouldn't be such a surprise that a Pittsburgh presence would be felt in Roma, after all, they carve it into archways near the Piazza Del Popolo (sort of):

'BURGH (Latin spelling)

This is all further proof that Pittsburgh is in fact the epicenter of the world. We didn't seen any Flyers or Ravens gear anywhere ... or their cities nicknames "etched" into centuries-old monuments ...

So pay Giovanni a visit and tell him Blog 'N' Gold sent you.

To quote Ron Burgundy .... "When in Rome ..."