Check-in is from 3:00 PM at the Hotel Caesius Thermae & Spa Resort. The evening will begin with a welcome cocktail reception, followed by dinner (venue to be confirmed).
Ease into Monday with an 11:00 AM start. Lugana’s ‘Golden Mile’ and Nunzio Ghiraldi’s vineyard awaits, a stone’s throw from the turquoise gleam of Lake Garda. Veneto’s ‘cool, classy white’ (Kerin O’Keefe) is a sommelier’s favourite and made from its own grape variety, turbiana. Nunzio’s wines are complex, ageworthy and fruit forward, achieving a depth of flavour that puts them on the top shelf.
After a light lunch, onwards to Giovanna Tantini, the Queen of Chiaretto. She has a preference for the most serious of Bardolino grapes, Corvina, nurturing it to perfect ripeness year after year. The critics love her, and there is a gravitas to her work that challenges conventional wisdom, while her personality is refreshingly ebullient. The evening is a leisurely affair at the Hotel Caesius Thermae.
The Penisola di Sirmione, its fourteenth-century castle complete with a walled harbour and romantic legend, is a mesmerising must-see in today’s boat tour of must sees. Docking for a break at Gardone Riviera, officially one of Italy’s most beautiful villages, you can soak up the panache of some impressive lakeside architecture. In the afternoon/evening, we are visiting Monte Castelon, a small yet mighty Amarone producer run by brothers Silvano and Maurizio Tommasi. They still dry their grapes the traditional way, over winter, crafting an elegant, authentic style that also uses altitude to great effect. Enjoy an intimate meal at the winery in San Rocco Marano di Valpolicella before heading back to the hotel.
Following breakfast, we check out of Hotel Caesius Thermae and travel to Verona, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and our next port of call. Famed for being, among other illustrious mentions, the setting for Romeo & Juliet, you are unlikely to bite your thumb at the guided tour. This is a city with a plethora of historical influences, each leaving their own idiosyncratic mark.
After Verona we will visit Corte Sant’Alda, where the redoubtable Marinella Camerani holds court in the hills above Mezzane di Sotto. Lauded for her peerless Amarone, she is a tour de force who has plotted her own vinous course and come out streaks ahead. Dinner, paired with her nimble and ageworthy wines, is followed by check-in at the Sporting Hotel San Felice, a short distance away.
Those with an appetite for history will have their fill in the medieval town of Soave. It is dominated by its castle, extended by the powerful Scaliger family and lovingly preserved, since the late 1800s, by the Camuzzonis and their descendants. A guided tour is followed by a visit to Soave Classico producer Canoso, with the evening spent back at Sporting Hotel San Felice.
The day will be dedicated to discovering some of Italy’s lesser-known cultural treasures. We visit the Teatro Olimpico in the city of Vicenza, a Renaissance masterpiece, then travel south to Padua to see Giotto’s groundbreaking frescoes at the Scrovegni Chapel. Padua is steeped in history, hosting the second-oldest university in Italy and, intriguingly, the world’s oldest botanic garden. In the evening, we enter the beautiful heartland of Prosecco and overnight at the elegant Albergo al Sole in Asolo.
After breakfast and check-out, Prosecco producer Zucchetto is our final stop. For Carlo Zucchetto, Prosecco is a serious business. It is revered locally, but one has to see the landscape to understand this. The steep, hogback hills - yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site - allow for nuanced wines that are a world apart from the ubiquitous froth from the plains. There is no better exponent than Carlo. Lunch at his winery is followed by a shuttle service to Venice train station, or airport, or a local destination of your choosing.
