Hostaria Verona - Experience The Best of Verona • Reverse Wine Snob®

Eat and drink your way through the sights of this amazing Italian city with the Hostaria Verona Festival.

Immerse yourself in the culture of Verona in a truly unique way! Recapping our visit to Hostaria Verona in October.

If you’re planning a visit to Italy this fall, we’ve got an amazing way to see the sights of Verona. Last October we were invited by the good folks at Hostaria Verona to come and experience the fourth edition of their city-wide festival celebrating the wine, the food and the culture of this area.

Verona, the third largest city in northeast Italy is home to a tremendous amount of Roman and medieval history. Within the biggest wine producing region in Italy (Veneto) the area around Verona has a tremendous variety of wine — from Valpolicella (Amarone!) to Soave to the lesser-known wine regions around Lake Garda like Bardolino and Lugana, this is a fabulous spot for wine lovers to visit. Not to mention Prosecco and Franciacorta are both 2 hours or less away.

The Festival itself is unique in that booths are set up throughout the entire (mostly pedestrian) old town of Verona. Each booth offers the opportunity to sample regional wine, food and other items.

In all the 2018 rendition of Hostaria Verona featured 30 wine producers from the Verona area plus 56 wine producers from other regions of Italy, sampling over 200 different wines.

In addition, there were 18 “sbecolorie” where you can try excellent traditional dishes and even 3 craft breweries.

With 70 booths spread out over 3km of the city, Hostaria Verona is an amazing way to not only see the sights of Verona but truly immerse yourself in the culture of this area. Where else can you go where you can wander through so much history (like the Arena in Verona which was built in the 1st century AD before the Coliseum in Rome and still in use today) all the while sipping a glass of excellent local wine?

Tickets are available several months before the event and include a number of tokens for sampling the wine and food, as well as a glass and a glass holder you wear around your neck. We found it to be a tremendously well-done event. In 2019 it will be held from October 11-13.

Here’s how the Hostaria Cultural Association describes the philosophy of the event:

The festival HOSTARIA offers the original and unique experience of a big osteria in open space, in the wonderful frame of the old center of Verona, with the tasting of the best local and Italian wines, and traditional food, following a philosophy that reflects and embraces the values inspiring Associazione Culturale Hostaria, in full respect of the city decorum and the value of the responsible drinking.