“We opened in Venice, then next played Verona…then Mantua and Padua… and then…”

Those Cole Porter lyrics from a long-ago Broadway musical sound like a tourist’s itinerary of Veneto. A gondola ride and gelato in St. Mark’s Square. Standing under Juliet’s balcony in Verona, or exploring the museums and churches of Padua. Maybe even day-tripping to Treviso or Vicenza. Food, art, scenery, it’s all there. And wine. Oceans of wine.

Veneto is the engine powering the Italian wine industry. Tuscany is rightly more famous and Piedmont may be more prestigious but neither comes close to matching Veneto’s 233,600 acres of vines or annual production. Last year the region churned out an eye- popping 120 million cases. That’s over 1.4 billion bottles, enough to supply every resident of Europe’s wine producing countries with four.