Moving on to Vinitaly

Vinitaly here we come but first...

In my last post we had arrived in Sirmione ready to get to work at Vinitaly. I was writing for a national liquor magazine for the trade at the time and I was going to do a three or four page report. I ended up writing 12 pages. What I expected and what I finally saw were at opposite ends of the spectrum. I defy anyone to come back from Vinitaly for the first time and not be impressed, but before we get to Vinitaly I want to mention a little bit about Sirmione.

Sirmione

Sirmione is a town on the shores of Lake Garda, the largest lake in Italy and I also think in Europe – though I could be wrong about that. It is a really popular place because it has something for everyone: water sports, Gardaland for kids (though this isn’t really in Sirmione but in another town down the road), restaurants, thermal spas, accommodation of all types, tourist attractions and historical sites – it’s also 40 minutes away from the romantic city of Verona. During the season several outdoor musical spectaculars are held in the outdoor are close to the lake. It is an ideal place to go for a holiday due to its proximity to several others towns and it’s in a wine making area for those who love a drop of vino.

Sirmione is a town of thermal spas so for quite a large part of the year there is a smell of sulphur. Thermal spas reached their peak in the 1960s with a number of holiday towns reaching capacity. These extend down to Tuscany where a number of places have literally hundreds of hotels which are now being turned into apartments as the popularity for sulphur baths wanes.

We stayed at the Albergo Sirmione, one side of which is right next to the water. I had a lovely room on the lake side and each evening I could watch the swans as the floated close to shore looking for food in amongst the rushes. It was extremely peaceful.

When we arrived at the hotel I decided to get some laundry done as I would be there another seven days.  Ed McCarthy, a well-known wine journalist in the USA was in the next room. He asked that when they came to pick mine up could they call on him and get his as well.

The housemaid duly came and took mine while Ed had decided to take a shower. The housemaid knocked on his door and he quickly wrapped himself in a towel and handed her the bag and said wash and iron.

The next day when the bag came back they had washed and ironed everything –his underpants and socks included for which he received an enormous bill. He expected them to wash and then iron the things that required ironing. Of course, being a hotel and willing to charge for everything, they took the opportunity and ironed everything. Ed is now much more careful about sending his laundry out.

Villa Giusti, Verona

Vinitaly

ICE had put on a coach for us everyday which took us directly to the event. It took about an hour each morning because of the traffic but it did allow time for sightseeing out of the coach’s windows each day.

We would arrive at the gates to the exhibition centre and wait at the gates until we were let in. It was like going to a concert or football match, there were thousands of people all wanting to get in the turnstiles first, pushing and shoving and then finally popping out the other side. The exhibition was made up of about 8 padiglione (Pavilions) – it has grown over time and now covers an area of 95,000 sq metres, it has  over 4000 exhibitors and receives more than 150,000 visitors.

I was very fortunate as I had planned to accompany two Italian-born importers around the fair. What a wonderful time we had, each day we would have appointments to meet their clients and each night we would be taken out for dinner to different places and then driven home to Sirmione.

It was exhausting but fun and I learnt a lot about Italian wine. I made friends on that trip who I still regard as friends today, I often visit them when I am in Italy.

One importer in particular brought in some big names whereas the other had an assortment including some bargain basement lines but it didn’t matter where we went we were treated as old friends.

The largest Mortadella I have ever seen

We saw people in medieval costumes wandering around the fair, the largest Mortadella you have ever seen, minstrels and other strolling musicians. Lunchtime the food outlets were crowded with thousands of people trying to get served and the way the Italians have the Cassa – where you order and pay – and then go on to the serving people making you line up twice,  make it doubly annoying.

People in Medieval costume

The toilets were another bone of contention, being in the media meant I could use the bathrooms in the press office but my companions would have to line up and we would waste about half an hour a day while they went to the loo.

Wandering Minstrels

I didn’t take as many photos as I should have and the whole thing is now a distant memory but it was the birth of my love of travelling around Italy.

Sampling wine