Who isn’t obsessed with Prosecco. Those thousands of perfect bubbles of Italian goodness captured in a bottle, screaming celebration, culture, and with the label DOCG – the real McCoy. So naturally, when in Italy, the Prosecco Region was a must. I contacted Visit Prosecco Italy and they were incredible, seamless and Cris had us wondering why we had booked return tickets home.
Cris met my partner and I at the train station the morning of our tour, having previously emailed to me the best modes of transport to get there, timetables and how to buy tickets if Italian is not your string point, it was seamless.
We set off on a tailor-made tour (ours just happened to be us on the day though we were happy to have others join if there were other bookings) to three different wineries. Each winery was incredible. We had our own private tour around each of the cellars, learnt the history to each families’ masterworks dating back to 1600, tasted local (organic) apricots and cheese and of course sampled the glera tonda/lunda goods – Verdiso, Prosecco, Prosecco Superiore.
In between wineries, and likely so that we remembered the stunning scenery of Valdobbiadene rather than just the golden liquid, we stopped at an Osteria for lunch. Again, perfect. Authentic little restaurant (not a word of English) with fantastic cold cuts for lunch – bread, cheeses, ham, salami etc and of course, homemade Prosecco.
We also ventured to the Prosecco vending machine, genius idea, but yes definitely a tourist attraction (would love to install in my house). You can buy a bottle for around 10-20 euro and even cheese and crackers for your own little picnic. Plastic glasses provided.
Cris was absolutely brilliant. A local and very knowledgeable about each winery, the history of the region and answered all of our questions about supply and demand and the effect on production/sustainable farming with global warming. The Prosecco Hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene are now listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site so its popularity and the number of tourists will inevitably only increase. Visit Prosecco Italy have this down pat, super helpful, very reasonably priced in comparison to other companies that depart from Venice etc, they personalise everything to your preferences and the best thing – you don’t feel like a tourist. The wineries welcomed us in like family, they were so proud (as they should be!) yet so humble. Best Prosecco you will ever have. 110% recommend Cris and this company, we can’t wait to get back! Thank you so much!