Overwhelming, chaotic, loud, intense. Vinitaly is people, meetings, connections, diversions, parties, happy hours, dinners, everything but wines. It’s like a tsunami that hits you on the very first day so that you don’t know where exactly you will end up on day 4. Order doesn’t belong here. This is not Prowein, the German wine fair: only by appointment, only if you scheduled everything in advance. And I say thank God. Vinitaly still reflects what Italy is: a beautiful, unique, ipnotic and energetic chaos. For those who like to read negativity even in the grocery list, I specify I AM NOT COMPLAINING about the organisation, I don’t care about the traffic, the wi-fi, the spiting buckets, the glasses, I am talking about the vibe. I want to tell you how a “young” woman in the wine business on her high heels can survive 4 days on this schedule: wake up, walk, taste, smile, talk, shake hands, meet, walk, taste, smile, talk, walk, eat, drink, dance, smile, shower, massage your feet, “sleep” and start over. The answer is “I don’t know”, every year my foreign friends and colleagues who plan to visit Vinitaly ask me for suggestions to be organised, to plan in advance meetings and appointments, to make the agenda work. The truth is that you can burn your agenda the moment you step in, on day number one. The tsunami will hit you, the only way to survive is to follow the flow, don’t get anxious for the meetings you are missing, don’t panic if you are late (everybody is). Every producer wants to transfer you his passion, wants to give you the best experience of his wines, time is never enough at Vinitaly.

I could write a post about all the wines I discovered and loved, with detailed descriptions and sensorial analysis, but I rather choose to talk about the people. Because this is what Vinitaly is about: PEOPLE. I personally prefer to taste wines at the winery, not during Vinitaly. I respect so much the efforts that the wine producers put in their wines that I want to taste them with the time and the attention they deserve. Vinitaly to me is a way to know new stories, new people, to be introduced to new wines by passionate people. The following gallery is a small album of Vinitaly moments with some short stories and highlights… Because also this time it was a struggle, but it was worthy (even the pair of Jimmy Choo I destroyed with 10 miles per day in the fair area)!