Think of it as Italian firewater? An end-of-meal tipple to be feared as much as revered? Paul Pettengale explains why quality grappa should be sipped and savoured… You know the drill. You’ve enjoyed your welcoming glass of prosecco. You’ve sampled a glass of white, maybe a glass of red with your six-plus course meal at […]
Olives, bread and wine form the ‘Trinity of the Table’ in Tuscany, and there is an impressive supporting cast behind them too. Wanda Djebbar explains just what it is that makes Tuscan cooking so good… With the region’s great agricultural heritage, it is not surprising that Tuscan food is strongly linked to the land. Most […]
Would you want your children to be taught how to drink wine…let us know what your reaction to this news snippet is… Italian school children as young as six could soon be taught how to drink wine. The proposal forms part of a parliamentary bill designed to prevent irresponsible drinking among young people and help them appreciate […]
With thousands of tourists paying for the privilege of a stay on this beautiful island, Sarah Lane ponders why the exiled Napoleon gave Elba the elbow Elba, Italy’s third largest island, is probably best known by English speakers for the palindrome credited to Napoleon: Able was I, ere I saw Elba. But there is much […]
Welcome all to the inaugural Italia! Travel Awards – our team selects the very best places to visit, museums to view, beaches to relax on and much more. Discover the best of Italy right here… Every month we bring you the experience of Italy, with all the best places to go and all the best things to […]
It brings together a heady mix of chocolate, damsons, spice and bruised cherries. Honesty in a wine is such an important trait. To find a wine that encompasses all-and-nothing-else of its terroir is a rare thing indeed, and yet this is precisely what Paola Corradi has achieved with her ‘basic’ Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. All […]
We love wine here at Italia! and so it is only natural that this exhibition caught our eye. Held in Verona, Italy’s largest wine and spirit exhibition is coming up soon; Vinitaly. The opportunity to taste some of the best wines awaits – how can any budding connoisseur resist? Italian wines have – finally – become accepted […]
Think Prosecco and you may think of Bellinis and Spritzers, but there is so much more to the wine than that, as its producers are keen to point out. Kevin Pilley treads the Prosecco Road in Italy’s far northeast… One for the shade,” said Francesco, handing me an ombra of fizzy San Giuseppe Superiore […]
Montepulciano D’Abruzzo: Reliable, mass produced and very drinkable, Hannah Bellis says there is life beyond house red for this southern grape… Anyone who has had more than a few glasses of red in their lifetime will have drunk Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. It is a famous name in that it is so widely available – it is […]
The region of Trentino is famed for its winter sports rather than it wines, but what can you expect to drink to accompany dinner après ski? Italia! investigates the grapes that grow on the slopes in the summer… The northern region of Trentino, which lies between Lombardy to the west and the Veneto to the […]