Tuscany's thousands of vineyards makes it one of Italy's largest wine-producing regions. (photo by rayced via flickr)

Every September, Italy moves from summer mode into wine mode, with la vendemmia, the annual grape harvest, during which time the country’s most beloved crop is gathered and turned into stunning red, white, rosé, and sparkling wines.

With nearly one million vineyards throughout the country with perfectly parallel rows of grapevines everywhere from the flat lands of Tuscany to the staggering cliffs of Cinque Terre, Italy is one of the largest and oldest wine producers in the world.  It may come as no surprise, then, that the country also leads the world in wine consumption.  So when you go, it’s only right to join the locals.

Italian wines are classified under four categories: Vino da Tavola (basic table wine made in Italy), Indicazione Geografica Tipica or IGT (simple wine made from a specific Italian region), Denominazione di Origine Controllata or DOC (wine made under government regulations to preserve a its unique identity), and Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita or DOCG (a small number of the highest quality wine produced under government regulations)—the most being produced in Tuscany and Piedmont.

With the grape harvest right around the corner, here is a region-by-region look at some of the most sought-after wines from around Italy.  Keep it handy during your vacation so you’ll know what kind of wine to sip in every city you visit.

Abruzzo DOCG: Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Colline Teramane; DOC: Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, Controguerra, and Trebbiano d’Abruzzo

Basilicata DOCG: Aglianico del Vulture Superiore; DOC: Matera and Terre dell’Alta Val d’Agri

Calabria DOC: Bivongi, Ciró, Greco di Bianco, Pollino, and Verbicaro

Campania DOCG: Aglianico del Taburno, Fiano di Avellino, Greco di Tufo, Taurasi; DOC: Campi Flegrei, Capri, Cilento, Penisola Sorrentina, and Vesuvio

Emilia–Romagna DOCG: Albana di Romagna and Colli Bolognesi Classico Pignoletto; DOC: Lambrusco, Sangiovese di Romagna, and Bosco Eliceo

Friuli–Venezia Giulia DOCG: Ramandolo, Colli Orientali del Friuli Picolit, and Rosazzo; DOC: Friuli Aquileia, Collio, and Lison Pramaggiore

Lazio DOCG: Cesanese del Piglio and Frascati Superiore; DOC: Castelli Romani, Colli Albani, Montecompatri-Colonna, Est! Est! Est! di Montefiascone, Velletri among others.

Le Marche DOCG: Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi; DOC: Bianchello del Metauro, Rosso Cònero, Lacrima di Morro d’Alba, and Falerio dei Colli Ascolani

Liguria DOC: Cinque Terre Schiacchetrà, Colli di Luni, Colline di Levanto, Golfo del Tigullio, Riviera Ligure di Ponente, Rossese di Dolceacqua, Val Polcevera, and Pornassio

Lombardy DOCG: Franciacorta, Moscato di Scanzo, and Valtellina Superiore; DOC: Garda Classico, Cellatica, and Botticino

Molise DOC: Biferno, Molise, and Pentro di Isernia

Piedmont DOCG: Asti, Barbaresco, Barbera d’Asti, Barbera del Monferrato Superiore, Barolo, Brachetto d’Acqui, Dolcetto di Diano d’Alba, Erbaluce di Caluso, Gavi, Gattinara, Ghemme, and Roero; DOC: Barbera d’Alba, Freisa d’Asti, and Freisa di Chieri

Puglia DOCG: Primitivo di Manduria; DOC: Aleatico di Puglia, Cacc’e Mmitte di Lucera, Salice Salentino, and Rosso di Cerignola

Sardinia DOCG: Vermentino di Gallura; DOC: Malvasia di Bosa, Moscato di Sorso-Sennori, Moscato di Cagliari, Vernaccia di Oristano, Cannonau di Sardegna, Nuragus di Cagliari, Carignano del Sulcis, and Mandrolisai

Sicily DOCG: Cerasuolo di Vittoria; DOC: Moscato di Noto Naturale, Moscato di Pantelleria, Moscato di Siracusa, Marsala, Malvasia delle Lipari, and Sambuca di Sicilia

Trentino-Alto Adige DOC: Alto Adige/Südtirol which has six subzones, Valdadige, Teroldego Rotaliano, Casteller, and Lago di Caldaro/Caldaro

Tuscany DOCG: Chianti, Chianti Classico, Brunello di Montalcino, Carmignano, Vernaccia di San Gimignano and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano; DOC: Bolgheri, Vin Santo del Chianti, Bianco della Valdinievole, and Ansonica Costa dell’Argentario

Umbria DOCG: Sagrantino di Montefalco and Torgiano Rosso Riserva; DOC: Rosso Orvietano, Colli del Trasimeno, Assisi, and Colli Altotiberini

Val d’Aosta Blanc de Mordex et de la Salle, Petit Rouge de Enfer d’Arvier et Torrette, Petite Arvine; DOC: Val d’Aosta

Veneto DOCG: Amarone di Valpolicella, Recioto di Soave, Prosecco, and Bardolino;  DOC: Valpolicella, Lessini Durello, and Bianco di Custoza

On the eve of the Epiphany, La Befana rides from house to house on her broomstick, leaving presents for Italian girls and boys.

In just three days, Christmas will quickly come and go, but in Italy, there’s another, perhaps bigger, gift-and-celebration-filled holiday right around the corner: the Feast of the Epiphany.  On January 6, this national holiday commemorates the 12^th day of Christmas, when the three Wise Men arrived at Baby Jesus’s manger, and marks the end of the modern-day Christmas season.

The night before, La Befana, an old witch, rides around on her broom, going from house to house to leave presents and candy for good children and coal for bad children.  According to legend, the Wise Men asked her for directions during their journey to Bethlehem, but she was too busy with housework to help or join them.  After the Wise Men continued on their way, she had a change of heart and went out searching for them to no avail.  Every year since, on that same night, La Befana hops on her broom and fills children’s stockings with gifts in the hopes that she’ll finally find Baby Jesus.

Around January 6^th, keep an eye out for La Befana celebrations, including a huge one in the Le Marche region and a regatta along Venice’s Grand Canal, plus living nativity scenes and Epiphany processions all around the country.

A musical legacy that started with the ding ding of a triangle has resulted in a festival that draws some of the biggest international opera performers and thousands of spectators every year to a picturesque town on Italy’s Adriatic coast.  

The Rossini Opera Festival, now in its 31^st year, takes place in Pesaro—a seaside beach resort in the Le Marches region known for three things: fishing, furniture, and Gioachino Rossini—opera composer extraordinaire often called Italy’s Mozart. 

Rossini was born in 1792 in Pesaro to a family of musicians, and by age six he was playing the triangle in his father’s band; at nine years old, he was playing viola with a theater orchestra; at age 12 he wrote his first batch of string quartets; and at 14 wrote his first opera, Demetrio e Polibio, while enrolled at music schools in Bologna.  Over the course of his career, Rossini composed 39 operas in addition to sacred music, chamber music, and piano/instrumental pieces.  He is best known for writing The Barber of Seville, Cinderella, Tancredi, and William Tell with its famous overture.

Upon his death in 1868, Rossini left his fortune to the town of Pesaro, so it’s only fitting that his birthplace teamed up with both local and federal governments to honor the composer with an annual festival devoted solely to his work, often showcasing lesser-known pieces.  This year, from August 9 to 22, Persaro’s Teatro Rossini and Adriatic Arena will be the setting for sold out performances of Rossini’s Sigismondo, Demetrio e Polibio, La Cenerentola (aka Cinderella), and many of Rossini’s other signature pieces.  Daniela Barcellona, Maria Jose Moreno, Lawrence Brownlee, Nicola Alaimo, Olga Peretyatko, and Andrea Concetti are just some of the names you’ll see in the performance programs.  

If you can’t make this summer’s other music and opera festivals, head to Pesaro for some performances with an Adriatic flair, and when you’re in Santa Croce in Florence, be sure to pay homage to the celebrated Rossini at his tomb.

If you’re looking for some off-the-beaten path events in Italy this summer, get your Maid Marian on at a jousting festival.  Armor-clad knights channel the days of the Crusades as they wield their lances atop galloping horses as they compete in these highly anticipated annual events.

The Giostra del Saracino in Arezzo has been held every year since the Crusades, so it’s one of the most authentic jousting experiences you can experience.  During this joust, eight costumed jousters representing the town’s four districts aim their chalk-tipped lances at a wooden replica of a Saracen king.  Points are tallied every time a jouster hits the king’s shield, but participants need to watch out—the target is mounted on a swivel, so once they hit the king, he might swing around and hit right back!  The prize, awarded twice a year (the third Saturday in June and the first Sunday in September) is a golden lance.

On the first Sunday in August, locals in Ascoli-Piceno pack the jousting field for Torneo della Quintana, a 15^th Century reenactment, completed with a parade and a huge Medieval al fresca feast in Piazza Arringo in honor of the winner.

Pistoia, a half hour outside of Florence, hosts Giostra dell’Orso on July 25 in honor of its patron saint, Saint James.  A dozen knights square off in the joust, targeting two bears (hence the name Joust of the Bear).  Drums, fanfare, and cheering crowds are the day’s soundtrack.

The Ferie delle Messi and the Giostra dei Bastoni in San Gimignano originally began to celebrate the local harvest and it has since developed into a two-day Medieval reenactment filled with parades, music, markets, food, fireworks, and a joust.

Italy’s biggest jousting festival has to be Giostra della Quintana in Foligno near Perugia.  Held on the first Saturday in July and the second Sunday in September, the event dates back to 1613 and draws over 600 participants and thousands of spectators—most of whom wear 17th Century costumes. During the joust, the knights spear rings from a statue of the Quintana.

Truffles, as the 18th-century French gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin called them, are “the diamond of the kitchen.”  Highly coveted, these delicious tubers are used sparingly in French, Spanish, Italian, and Croatian cooking and for enhancing the flavors of dishes such as pasta, risotto, and omelets.  Sparingly—because a pound of truffles can cost up to $3,000.

While the Langhe area of Piedmont is infamous for its wine and its wealth of the highly sought-after white truffle, you’ll have to wait until the fall to experience them in all of their glory.  In the meantime, get your truffle fix at the Black Truffle Fair in Norcia, a small mountain town near Perugia known for its delectable cuisine.  For two weekends (February 26-27 and March 5-7), the town thrives, with locals and visitors alike enjoying the regional delicacy of black truffles, which grow solely with oak and are found almost exclusively in Europe, of which 20% is produced in Italy.  So stay at one of our premier hotels in Perugia, either the Hotel Brufani Palace or the Sangallo Palace Hotel, and take a day trip to Norcia to discover a charming town and delicious truffles.

If the Black Truffle Fair in Norcia is too last-minute, start planning now for white truffle season, using this list of truffle fairs as your guide:

80^th International White Truffle Fair of Alba
Alba, equidistant from Torino and Genova
Every weekend from October 9 – November 14, 2010

San Miniato Truffle Fair
San Miniato, in between Florence and Pisa
Last three weeks of November

San Giovanni d’Asso fair 
Just outside of Siena
Second and third weekends of November

The National White Truffle Fair
Acqualagna, the self-proclaimed “truffle capital,” in the Marches region, where 2/3 of the national harvest of truffles is produced
Weekends in the end of October through mid-November

Fiera del Tartufo
Sant’Angelo in Vado, Marches region
Four weekends in a row, starting on the second weekend of October

Trade Fair of the Truffle and Woodland Products
Città di Castello, north of Perugia
November 6 – 8, 2010

Savigno Sagra del Tartufo
Savigno, west of Bologna
First three Sundays in November

Sasso Marconi Truffle Festival
Sasso Marconi, just outside of Bologna
First weekend of November

Fiera Nazionale del Tartufo Nero di Fragno
Calestano, in the mountains south of Parma
Every Sunday from mid-October through the third Sunday of November