Verona, The City of Giulietta, is invaded every April by Bacchus lovers. The number of wine stakeholders has been increasing over the last 40 years. A record number of 145,000 attended the world's premier wine show this year. This, in spite of the fact that the national elections took place during the last couple of  days of the Show  and Italians  were more concerned whether Berlusconi's or Prody's coalition would rule the country and for how long.

There were sellers in hordes; 4200 exhibitors from 25 countries! Dozens of tastings and seminars were conducted by various wineries, consortiums and regional associations. There were buyers and operators from over a hundred countries; 20% being the foreign visitors. If one went by the familiar faces from the motherland, it would appear that there was a jump of 200% from the last year' attendance. It was a boom time for Indians interested in Italian wines.

And this was also the time to learn about wines. Five days of visiting Vinitaly is the best way of  gaining immense knowledge on wines-specially the Italian kind. It seems a simple and short exercise. But it could be the most grueling experience physically (the legs refuse to co-operate after a couple of days unless you are the athletic type) and spiritually (the spirit in wine gets you unless you have learnt the art of  spitting out wine in the privacy of your bathroom) and mentally ( you may not want to look at wine or any of her cousins for a long time). Of course, it should be a socially acceptable norm with you  to start drinking  wine at nine in  the morning, when the gates are opened to the waves of people waiting to enter the gates of heaven.

Masquerading as a wine buyer or a potential is neither difficult nor unethical. Planning your course material and the extent of practical training is an important aspect. With all the regions and sub-regions it is physically impossible to grasp all the knowledge that is available out there. In order of importance, Tuscany , Piedmont and Veneto would be the top regions in your lists. Popular wines like Chianti, Valpolicella, Barolo, Brunello, Soave, Amarone, Prosecco, Super Tuscans, are from these regions and are in the First Chapters you need to get familiar with. Umbria is another region known for the white Orvieto wines but wineries like Lungarotti have given a new dimension to its reds. 

For a wine student from India , Sicily offers a great opportunity to absorb many new facets of wines since they make affordable and even cheap wine from both indigenous grapes (autochthon) and international varieties. They have a huge independent pavilion and for some reasons are always crowded. But you don't have to go to Bordeaux to learn about the Cabernet/Merlot blends or Burgundy to learn about the Chardonnay in their Pouilly Fuisse`. You may even learn to appreciate their local Nero d'Avola or white Insolia grape varietals. You may also find out how their cheap wines are exported to France for blending and perhaps finding their way to India as the  low-end, cheap table wines. Or how they get to the Northern Italian regions where they might be mixed or masked as the local popular Appellations. Mostly, these wines provide a great opportunity of drinking value for money wines of almost infinite varieties and are mostly ‘ New World ' Italian wines using the indigenous grapes as well.