While beer is still far behind wine in terms of popularity in Italy, things are slowly changing. For years, beer in Italy meant good, if unexciting products from large breweries; that is still the case at most pizzerie or large restaurants throughout the country. However, high quality microbrews have been making quite an impact over the past decade. Menabrea, a high quality lager from Piedmont, is served in many of the finest hotels and restaurants in Italy and is now exported to more than twenty countries. Buoyed by that success, dozens of microbrew pubs have opened in various areas throughout Italy; most are in the north, but you can now find one on the island of Sardinia as well. These artisan brewers craft all type of beers, from lagers to amber ales to Belgian-style dubbels. These brews work pair well with the tremendous array of local foods in Italy, so that combined with a trend of younger Italians slowly moving away from wine and toward other beverages, should provide a healthy future for beer - from large and small breweries - throughout the country.