village above a vineyard in Italy visited on a Tuscany wine tour

5 PLACES IN ITALY EVERY WINE LOVER NEEDS TO PUT ON THEIR BUCKET LIST

WRITTEN BY Tim Surgenor

Drinking Wine In Italy

Drinking wine in Italy is a serious business…. seriously fun. And rightly so of course. Every wine lover and/or casual partaker has at some point dreamt about drinking wine at source on a vineyard in Italy. Wine is produced in every one of Italy’s twenty regions and there are often dramatic differences between each region, making Italy a wonderfully interesting place to take a wine tasting tour. In this article we will give you 5 of the best places to visit in Italy for food and wine to be enjoyed together, in true Italian style.

Best Places to visit in Italy for Food and Wine

1. Tuscany

Tuscany might be considered the heartland of Italian wine production. It’s Chianti classico wines have come a long way in the last 30 years from the old fashioned straw covered bottles of the 1980s. Now Tuscany is home to some of the finest wines in the world.

Our top picks for the best place to visit in Italy for food and wine would absolutely include some Tuscan wine cellars. At the top end of town is The Antinori estate located just 15 minutes to the south of Florence on the road to Siena is without a doubt the mothership of all Italian wine estates to visit. Their modern, purpose built cellar is discreetly carved into the hill and only when you get up close do you realise this is an architectural masterpiece worthy of being a James Bond movie set. A delightful Tuscan restaurant sits on the rooftop garden where you can enjoy a gourmet Italian lunch and choose a bottle from the huge range produced by Antinori including their famous Super Tuscan, Tignanello.

For a more authentic family vibe our top pick is neighbouring Poggio al Sole, still a family run vineyard producing excellent Chianti Classico wines. Sitting a crest a hill overlooking the dramatic, still wild Tuscan countryside dotted with forests and vineyards, you can visit for a wine tasting only or from next year, visit their brand new restaurant which is absolutely one our top picks for the best places to visit in Italy for food and wine. Alma Italia Travel can of course take you to visit both of these on a day trip from Florence or a part of our week long Tuscany wine tour.

girl walking through vines on a Tuscany wine tour in Italy

Poggio al Sole is a family run vineyard producing organic Chianti Classico wines.

2. Piemonte

Piemonte in Northern Italy, with its famous Barolo and Barbaresco wines is perhaps the wine connoisseur’s pick for drinking wine in Italy.

The delightful region and village of Barolo, surrounded by world class vineyards and packed with gourmet restaurants is a bucket list destination for food and wine lovers and absolutely one of the best places to visit for food and wine in Italy. A perfect day out for us around Barolo would be dropping in on a couple of the famous cantina’s like Marchese di Barolo and Cantina Francesco Borgogno to sample their current vintage followed by a hearty dinner at Ristorante Borgo Sant’Anna by Pasquale Laera in nearby Monforte D’Alba. Both the food and the scenery are perfection, in a classic Piedemonte setting of vineyards and rolling hills. Here you can sample traditional Piedmontese specialities to which can only be added another bottle of delicious full bodied Barolo, which matches perfectly the rather rich food.

3. Sicily

Sicily is an often overlooked must visit place for drinking wine in Italy and absolutely deserves to be listed on our pick of best places to visit in Italy for food and wine.

Sicily is vast, the biggest region in Italy in fact and deserves at least a two week tour to discover its treasures but for food and wine our favourite spot has to be the Val di Noto in the south eastern corner of Sicily. Baroque Noto is an impossibly pretty town built from honey coloured limestone on a hill above some of the most beautiful beaches in all of Sicily. There is a strong foodie scene in town which has developed rapidly over the last couple of years as Noto has become a celebrity vacation hot spot with rich Europeans flocking to enjoy the beautiful architecture, climate, beaches and food. The neighbouring village of Avola is home to the famous ‘Nero D’avola’ wine which is soft, warm and full bodied, an excellent compliment to the flavorsome local food.

Our favorite Cantina to visit in the area is called Zisola, on a hill looking back towards the village of Noto. Owned by the Mazzei family who also have well regarded vineyards in Tuscany, you can book a wine tour to sample their take on Nero D’Avola.

rolling hills and landscape at dusk in Tuscany Italy

4. Puglia

Puglia is already the most popular region for Italians to vacation in August. At the ‘heel of the boot’ of Italy it is also rapidly becoming better known outside of Italy as well as a wonderful place for a vacation because of its combination of beautiful beaches, architecture which perhaps has more in common with nearby Greece than Italy, and of course it’s wonderful food and wine.

One of the principal grape varieties native to Puglia is called Primitivo. It produces a smooth, full bodied red and is perhaps the most familiar tasting wine to those of us from the United States because it is grown in California under the name ‘Zinfandel’. Puglia then is very high on our list of best places to visit in Italy for food and wine.

Puglia has so many wonderful cantina’s and restaurants to visit it seems unfair to single out one for this article but at Alma Italia we always enjoy a visit to Masseria Li Velli who produce no less than 13 types of wine plus a Grappa (strong local spirit) and a Passito (sweet wine). This makes for a very fun wine tasting session indeed. Take our word for it when we say you really should have a private driver to take you home! You can always rely on Alma Italia to help with that!

5. Veneto

Veneto of course is always first associated with its famous capital city of Venice and her canals. Less known perhaps is that the surrounding Veneto region is home to some fabulous wines including the sparkling wine, Prosecco, Italy’s popular answer to champagne. We rate this region so highly that Alma Italia has a tour dedicated to exploring the secrets of Veneto including of course a wine tasting trip to the near by Valdobbiadene. One of our favorite vineyards to visit in the area is Col Vetoraz, owned by a family who have been making wine since the 1800’s. At a tasting session, you can sip on almost anything your heart desires, and not just prosecco, although there are seven types. Col Vetoraz are also award-winning producers of many types of wine, including fantastic reds and rosés available to try.

These are some of our top picks for the best places to visit in Italy for food and wine in Italy. Don’t take our word for it here. To arrange a wine tasting trip to experience all of this and more for yourself, contact us at Alma Italia Travel for an unforgettable experience in Italy!

Timelessness for those caught in the fever and fret of life.

For all it’s beauty, the thing we value most about Puglia is its gift of time. The days pass differently here – the mornings effortlessly blend into the afternoons and the afternoons into night. One day complements the next in the way that vineyards complement the sea in the Valle d’Itria. Puglia is best enjoyed with others – with those you most love – not just because good food and good wine invites good company, but because the region offers time to reconnect, rekindle, and rejoice.

In short, here is our humble opinion: tours of Puglia never disappoint. They rejuvenate, revive, delight. And while there is more to the region than the ocean, you are never far from the sweet, sweet sound of the sea.