I’m coming to the end of a challenging stretch during 2024, but to be clear, anybody with a job like mine who complains should be strung up by his toes—so no complaining from me! I’ll limit my explanation to just four words—fourth major spine surgery—but then proceed immediately to a trip that capped off my year in a marvelous manner: A week of traveling solo while conducting interviews and tastings in Italy’s gorgeous and delicious Barolo region. However, before you click away out of fear that this will be a creepy article with a tone of, “Hey, read about what I got to do!”…my actual intention is to embolden you to travel on your own to a favorite wine region in another country during 2025. Doing so is much less difficult than most wine lovers assume, and once you’ve built confidence from an initial journey, the rest of the wine world will be wide open to you.
I’ve been on countless press trips over the years and across the globe, but during recent years I’ve elected to travel more frequently on my own or with my wife. I’ve done so not only in Italy but also in Spain, France, and Germany, as well as in Chile and New Zealand. I’m aware that “going it alone” is a daunting prospect for many people, based on conversations with many friends and students from years of teaching wine classes. And though I understand you may fear that I’m setting you up for a misadventure, I swear you can do this—without press credentials, a tour guide, significant difficulty, or more stress than on any other excursion.
Because I’ve recently returned from a week of “work” in the Barolo district adjacent to the wonderful little city of Alba, I want to get specific about solo travel dynamics by using my trip there as my example.
However, most of the information and advice that follows is not only applicable to trips to Alba, but to almost anywhere in Italy north of Rome (and much of it pertains to travel anywhere in the wine world). Whether you’d be interested in traveling on your own to the Veneto, Friuli, Trentino, Alto Adige…you can do it, as I believe I can convince you here.
Naturally, I’m aware that I can only convince you if you want to travel without a guide or in a group but aren’t sure you can pull that off without a lot of stress and hassles. I think I can guide you past most concerns, but only you can know if you’d prefer to pick your own producers to visit, set your own pace, taste and talk with winery staff about what interests you as opposed to others in a group. Sometimes travel companions in a group ask questions that didn’t occur to you, yielding illuminating answers. But equally often a group includes at least one gasbag (usually a guy) who dominates conversations with “grandstanding” questions to which he already knows the answer—just to show that he already knows the answer. That alone may be enough to interest you in learning whether you could really cut loose from a pack and travel to visit wineries on your own.
Still, a guided group may suit you better. Fewer decisions will fall to you—for better or worse, and a group would provide chances to strike up new friendships. There can be other advantages as well. My friend and WRO colleague Pam Roberto wrote an excellent article entitled, “Eight Great Reasons to Take a Wine Study Abroad Trip” on this site in August of this year. You can find your way to that by simply clicking on the “Contributor” page atop your screen, scrolling down to the entry for Pam, and then clicking on “Pam’s Columns.”
Pam’s column offers pointers to two organizations that seem to run strong tours, and if you’re specifically interested in traveling to Italy with help from an excellent guide, I’ll help with a recommendation at the end of this article to give you a fallback option. But for now, let’s surmount some of the imagined hurdles to traveling independently that turn out to be easy enough to clear—perhaps surprisingly so.
Arriving by Air
Europeans wishing to make a trip to Alba (and then Barolo and/or Barbaresco) can get a very easy start, as some airline in most major European cities offers direct flights into Milan. Some also fly into Turin (or Torino in Italian), which is even closer to Alba. From the USA, an overnight flight is almost surely involved, but some of those can be direct flights into Milan, whereas others might require only one change of planes either within the USA or in a European hub. I live in Washington, D.C., which is a “hub” for United Airlines, so I fly directly to Frankfurt, Zurich or Munich, then connecting to a flight with a carrier in the Lufthansa Group, which is a partner of United in the “Star Alliance.”
Milan has two airports, and though Malpensa is the larger of the two with more flight options, Linate’s moderate size (like Torino’s airport) makes it easier to navigate, pick up a rental car, and get onto the highway with minimal risk of confusion or frustration. This is valuable if you aren’t a great sleeper on airplanes and tend to be a bit blurry upon arrival.
Renting a Car and Driving
Renting a car from the USA is easy, thanks to websites like rentalcars.com. They show prices for all major rental companies like Hertz or Avis—as well as European companies you may not know of yet. Europcar is in this latter group along with numerous other outfits including Sicily by Car (which sure doesn’t seem like a candidate for a trip in the north, but it is, and they’ve done well by me). Importantly, a site like rentalcars.com also indicates whether a company’s cars can be accessed by walking within the airport grounds rather than using a shuttle. These companies may not have the very lowest rates, but the small up-charge is worth it. Everybody at the rental car counters speaks English (which should get you past one major scare right away), and I’ve found the rental agents to be friendly, helpful, and efficient.
I’ve driven in Italy many times, and if you are a reasonably confident driver, I can assure you that the challenges are easy enough to anticipate and overcome.
For starters, the roads are very well maintained and marked, and the Google Maps app on your phone can direct you to virtually anywhere—and immediately re-route you if you take a wrong turn. The app works so well that it has surely saved countless lives (and marriages) that were once imperiled by a passenger needing to provide directions from a fold-out map while the driver tends to traffic. Moreover, true solo driving without a partner to navigate used to require pulling off to the road’s shoulder to check a map and try to memorize the next series of turns, which was a recipe for many sorts of disasters.
Now it is easy to go it alone—and truly alone, if you’re not with a companion. Be sure the app’s voice directions are turned on, and consider packing a smartphone holder that will clip into your car’s ventilation slots so that you can be sure you’re going the right way visually without taking your eyes off the road for more than an instant.
I know what you’re wondering at this point: How are Italians as drivers? The short answer is that they are better in northern Italy than in most of the USA. Both northern Italians (and Europeans more broadly) are vastly better on average than drivers in the area around my home base in D.C., which has an unusually high percentage of residents who learned to drive in other states or countries. The result around D.C. is constant chaos: Slow drivers in the left lanes, speeders whipping around them to the right, many drivers who are freaked out by snow or rain, but many others who are thoroughly experienced with snow and don’t slow down at all—you get the picture.
Think twice before taking your chances in Rome or Naples to the south, but on average, drivers across the broad swath in the north between Torino and Venice are quite predictable, and I’ve driven farther south in Tuscany with no trouble at all. I have no reason to believe that Italian or European drivers are any more skillful than American ones, but they are certainly more predictable, which is really all that counts if you are reasonably good behind the wheel.
Essential Advice: If you don’t want to drive fast, stay the hell out of the left lane. This is good advice anywhere in the world (except, of course, in the UK or other countries where the “fast lane” would be on right rather than the left). Many American drivers don’t heed this simple rule, creating as much danger and as many road rage incidents as the speed demons on our highways. In Europe, almost everybody is clearly aware that hanging out in the left lane (or not heeding the message when an approaching car is flashing its “brights”) is going to result in getting a Porsche up the kazoo.
An Italian superhighway (akin to I-95 or I-80 in the USA) is called an autostrada, with the important difference that they are toll roads. These cause major apprehension for those who don’t know a few simple tips in advance. Staffed tollbooths are rare, so you need to be prepared to deal with machines instead. Unless you’ve arranged for a toll pass gizmo with your rental company, be sure to choose a toll lane with a machine on the left before the gate arm. Your first stop will simply provide you with a ticket from whence your charge will be calculated whenever you exit to a more local road. As you approach, you’ll see a firm paper ticket sticking out of the machine, so all you need to do is stop, pull your ticket out, and head off after the gate arm lifts.
When you hit a toll stop where you need to pay, be sure once again NOT to blast through a lane without a machine at which you can stop and pay manually. Get into a lane with a machine, and rest assured that dealing with it is not difficult! Feed your ticket into the machine after looking for a directional arrow on it (or scan it if it has a readable code). Then just slip in a credit card with the chip going in first and wait for the magic word, “Arrivederci!” which you’ll hear as the gate arm lifts. For first-time drivers, this is the most beautiful word in the entire Italian language.
Don’t lose your cool if you don’t hear it and the machine starts giving you instructions that are unintelligible because you don’t speak Italian (as I do not). Double check your procedure with your ticket and credit card and try again. If that fails, you’ll be able to find a button to speak with someone who can help, or a staff member may talk to you through a speaker before you even find the button.
If all else fails, you’ll still get through, so again, don’t lose your cool! During my most recent trip, a person ahead of me in the toll line was totally stymied, either because she didn’t have her ticket or didn’t own a credit card. Cars piled up behind us, and as horns started honking, the person got out to explain, gesticulating emphatically but helplessly, and whoever was observing the scene and talking through the speaker simply buzzed her through without charge. If this were to happen to you, sure, your blood pressure would go up by a few points. But then again, if this were the worst thing ever to happen to you, you’d have led a very lucky life.
I know this is a long section, but I also know that driving is by far the biggest deal-breaking challenge for those who shy away from traveling overseas on their own. One last point is this: Local roads in northern Italy are also quite good, and even when they are under construction, warning signs, cones and barrels are very well utilized and will keep you safe. Moreover, Google Maps has gotten so good that you can almost always get directions just by typing in the name of the winery, without bothering to add a street address. The app also offers verbal warnings about speed cameras, and your screen will show speed limits, which should be heeded for the good reason that you are—by definition—on terra incognita when venturing into a new area.
Lodging
This is easy, so we can dispense with it quickly. If you like staying in hotels (meaning, you like the convenience and aren’t already bored with them from too much business travel), search sites like booking.com are very helpful for getting the price and location that suits you. If you’re bent on getting the very best deal, a metasearch engine like Kayak is even better, searching many search sites. These sites now include apartment rentals as well as hotels, which is a great option if you want kitchen facilities to be able to cook for yourself some nights. I love that option because I also love hitting street markets in Europe for local delicacies, and staying in some nights helps me keep up with work and control expenses.
Airbnb or Vrbo are great for finding rental houses for larger groups as well as apartment or condo dwellings for smaller ones. I’ve found the ratings left by former guests to be quite reliable (unlike, say, Yelp reviews of restaurants), and hosts around the world have proved almost uniformly responsive in my experience. Hotels may be better for those who prefer a “sure thing,” but personally, all hotels start to seem the same for frequent travelers except the luxury ones, and I don’t care about spas or bathrobes, and have better things to pay for than places where I’ll mostly be unconscious. But this is a highly personal choice, and getting a good fit for you is easy.
Winery Visits
Setting winery visit appointments is one variable that “cuts both ways” regarding the relative advantages of traveling solo or with a group. If a guide sets the itinerary, you don’t need to make arrangements, but you’ll likewise get no say (or very little say) in which producers you visit. Moreover, the number of visits per day set by a guide may be too many or too few depending on your personal “sliding scale” dividing preference for a relaxed pace versus ardor for learning.
There are at least three ways to set visit appointments for yourself. None are guaranteed to succeed in every instance, but it is also true that there’s no limit to how many visits you can request. If you get more affirmative responses than you can actually accept, you can always politely decline due to “schedule complications,” which is an honest response that will be gracefully accepted.
If you buy wine frequently from a solid, responsive retailer and have a relationship with a sales consultant, that person can make visit requests on your behalf with the wine’s importer or directly with the winery. Having someone in the wine trade introduce you and vouch for your seriousness about learning is always helpful, but not always necessary. The very fact that you wish to travel to a region and visit someone’s winery is proof enough of your seriousness, but an introduction and request from the someone in the trade will enhance your odds.
If you buy from many different retailers and have wine shipped to you, you probably don’t have a strong enough relationship with anyone in particular to ask for appointment-requesting favors. The same is true if you buy from a giant retailer like Total Wine. (I can’t even get the store closest to me to answer their phone to check on availability of a wine, so chances for concierge services are in the snowball-in-hell range.)
But there are two more avenues that can lead to visits. One is to contact the winery’s USA-based importer, which by law is indicated on the back or front label of every wine sold here. All importers have websites, and all show contact information. Obviously, responsiveness will differ by company, but that’s just another reason to start early and cast a wide net. It is in the importer’s business interest to send admiring consumers to visit wineries, so this is a more promising approach than it may seem at first blush. A high percentage of overseas wineries complain that their USA importer pays them insufficient attention and doesn’t do enough to promote their wines. The person you contact with an importing company may not be “excited” to set a visit for you, but since we’re addressing Italy here, remember Machiavelli’s advice to consider people’s “interests” more closely than their “virtues.”
The third option is to contact producers directly. Virtually every winery in the world shows an email address or offers a contact portal on its website. Yes, you will strike out in some instances because the winery staff doesn’t check the info@winery… address frequently, but again, start early and cast a wide net. Some producers will be indifferent, but many will be flattered by your request and be glad to welcome you. It takes a lot of work and investment to set up a winery, and proprietors are predictably eager to show off the fruits of their labors.
Maybe you’ll be charged for your visit and tasting, but maybe not. If there is a charge, it may be deducted from any wine you purchase, but perhaps it won’t be. Either way, the charge will not loom large as a percentage of the overall cost of your trip. Paying to have someone to host visitors is not cheap for the winery, nor is opening bottles, so visit fees are not something to get grumpy about. Your odds of dodging them entirely are far higher even in a prestigious region like Barolo than they are in Napa, so hope for the best, but just pay cheerfully if that’s requested—and any fee will very probably be indicated to you when your appointment is set.
When you do find receptive wineries and are about to set an appointment, explain humbly that you don’t speak Italian if you do not. (Obviously the same courtesy should be observed in Spain, Germany, or wherever). It is better not to ask if they speak English than to acknowledge that you can’t converse in their language. The odds are overwhelming that your host will indeed speak English, even though that may not be true of the winemaker as opposed to another member of the staff. But the key point is this: Do not let fear of a language barrier hold you back. The barrier probably doesn’t exist in the first place, and is almost never insurmountable if it does. If you can at least offer a greeting and thanks in the language of your host, and if they can speak some basic English, you’ll do just fine with pantomime and intuition and good humor. The chances that you’ll just stare at one another uncomfortably are so close to zero that they are not worth even considering.
You are not obliged to buy wine when you visit. Almost everybody almost everywhere knows it is a pain to fly home with bottles, so take that off your worry list. However, some producers work with shipping companies that will cobble together the bottles you acquire overseas and ship them to you, handling the duties and regulations with US Customs. Odds are that the wines will still be a good deal when they arrive, as you or the winery will only be paying the shipper, and you won’t be hit with the markups taken by a USA-based importer as well as a retailer.
Safety Tips
A few final tips to assure safety while keeping you relaxed and happy: First, don’t set too many appointments. One at about 10:00 or 10:30 is a good time for a first visit, after eating breakfast so that you’re not tasting on an empty stomach. Whoever is driving should spit when tasting. That person doesn’t have taste buds in his or her throat anyway, and all professional tasters spit during winery visits, so don’t worry about seeming like a weenie. In fact, asking for a spittoon shows that you are serious, and wineries will gladly honor your request.
Eat lunch after that first visit, and think twice before ordering a bottle to go with your meal. The driver should have no more than one glass and should have an espresso before getting on the road. When driving between visits, be sure to have bottled water on hand and maybe some breadsticks (which are sensationally good from the bakeries around Alba). Whether it is water and breadsticks or something else non-alcoholic and filling, drink what you want and eat what you want—but remember that dilution and absorption are absolutely your friends, assuring you a safe and enjoyable day. A second visit at 1:30 or 2:00 p.m. makes sense, as does a third at about 4:00 or so. Three wineries per day is totally do-able and fun, provided you stay hydrated and fed.
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I hope you’ll find the foregoing observations sufficiently emboldening to try a trip on your own. However, if you remain too apprehensive to make the attempt, consider Pam Roberto’s recommended educational tour organizations, The Wine Scholar Guild and The Napa Valley Wine Academy. If you open a new tab and simply copy those words and paste them into the new URL line, websites for the organizations will come up immediately.
If touring with an expert guide in Italy is your specific objective, I highly recommend Vino Viaggio, run by Lars Leicht, an exceedingly knowledgeable industry professional. Full disclosure: Lars and I have been friends for decades, but we became friends by traveling together, and he is not only a blast to travel with, but also a superb linguist and cook and among the handful of Americans who are most fully informed about the wines and cuisines of Italy. You will love him, as everyone else does.
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Whether you opt to travel on your own, join a group, or be led by a guide, you should get overseas to visit a wine region during the year ahead. I’ve visited nearly 2,000 wineries since starting as a columnist with The Washington Post in 1994, and the pace of my travels has only been slowed briefly by Covid and a couple of those aforementioned spine surgeries. I’ll continue with site visits until somebody carries me out of one feet-first. Learning while seeing the lay of the land imparts a depth of terroir understanding for which there is simply no substitute. Similarly, learning how the style of a wine was shaped by the personality of the person who crafted it is best accomplished by speaking with the person herself or himself. Appreciating how wines evolved symbiotically with the cuisine and culture of a locality is possible at the highest level only by eating, tasting, and residing in the locality. So, however you choose to organize your wine trip next year—just start planning now. And go!
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If you have questions, additional suggestions, or differing opinions, please feel free to contact me directly at [email protected]
Photo credit goes to me, as the shot was taken from the balcony of my quiet apartment up in the hills above Alba first thing in the morning on November 11. Why would you not travel to this place?