2 weeks in Italy - Wine tasting suggestions?

Question

Planning to do Rome (4 days?), Florence (2 days?), and Venice (1 day?). Additional days based on recommendations.

Are wineries open to the public, as in Napa? Are reservations required? Are there winery maps available once I get over there or a website to plan out the trip?

Thanks!!!

Answer 1

if you can find it have a go at a bottle of Taurasi. It's not the kind of wine that is popular these days, being very dense and full.. but its diversity makes it something to try.

It is made in the south, in a small town near Avellino.. some km from Napoli.

In Venice try to find a bottle of Tocai from Friuli.. the lost cause with Hungarian forced the italian producers to change the name.. so the last bottles with "Tocai" could become quite rare.

Answer 2

I can't tell you about any wineries, we never got around to

finding them...we were there 3 weeks and found that every

restaurant we went to had great wine, we just ordered a liter

or red and never were dissappointed.  We ended up calling

our trip the "eat & drink" tour of Italy.  Can't wait to go back.

         Check out the different guides to Italy, I am sure that

there iare a few just concentrating on the wines and wineries,

go to your nearest book store  or Amozon.com and see what

you find.

Answer 3

Most wineries are open to the public.  When I studied in Florence my family and I rented a car and spent a few days in the Tuscan countryside traveling to different wineries.  The best possible suggestion I could give to you since you're only spending 2 days in Florence is to go to the town of Montalcino.  At the top of this hill town is a place called the 'Enoteca La Fortezza'.  You can google it and get more information on it but here's the gist:  It's a wine bar inside of an old fort.  At the wine bar they have every red wine produced in Tuscany and you can get classic Tuscan food as well.  They have everything from your everyday wines to your high profile wines.  We got food and did 3 different flights of high-end reds.  I'm not sure if you're all that familiar with wine tasting but flights are normally tastings of 3 to 5 different glasses of wine paired to provide contrast and give the taster a distinct comparison.  Enjoy your trip because I wish I was in your shoes right now.  Remember....'un ceno senza vino e come un giorno senza sole'.

Answer 4

I didn't come across any wineries in Rome or Florence.  If you are looking for open wine tastings I'd suggest Tuscany.  Siena or some other mountain hill towns like Montalcino.