Wine
There is a volcano forty minutes south of Rome with vineyards on it, and the white wine made up there is not the one the tourist restaurants in the centre pour.
40 things to book17 placesthe nearest is a 34 min drive from Rome
The white wine of the hills south of Rome — Frascati, and the neighbouring appellations around Lanuvio and Colonna — is made on volcanic soil up in the hills, and it tastes nothing like the carafe wine of the centro storico. The estates are close together and most of them take bookings for a cellar visit and a tasting, often with lunch.
East of that, in the hills between Olevano Romano, Piglio and Affile, is Cesanese: the red most people mean when they say wine from Lazio. The other native red worth knowing is Nero Buono, grown almost nowhere outside Cori, and one of the few Italian reds still made almost entirely by small producers. Further north, the Tuscia and the Orvieto hills, and — if you have a full day — the Umbrian hill towns of Montefalco and Bevagna.
One practical note that decides the shape of the day: there is wine at the end of all of these. Book a driver, or nominate one.
Four regions, four different days, and they are not interchangeable. The Castelli are the short one: half an hour out, whites on volcanic soil, and estates that will also feed you. Cesanese is the red one, an hour east, small producers and almost no visitors. The Tuscia and the Orvieto hills are the quiet one, and usually the cheapest. Umbria and the Sabina are the full day.
What to expect at the door: these are working farms rather than tasting rooms, so a visit is a cellar, a walk into the vines and four or five glasses at a table, poured by somebody who is going back to work afterwards. That is why booking matters, and why the visits are more interesting than they are in places set up for coaches.
Two words worth knowing before you go. *Cantina* is the cellar and the thing you are visiting. *Degustazione* is the tasting. Ask for the *Superiore* where an estate makes one, and ask what is in the blend — around Rome the whites are Malvasia and Trebbiano and the differences between producers are real.
Half an hour from the city, up on the crater rim, on black volcanic soil. Cellars cut into tufo, terraces looking down at Rome, and estates that pair the tasting with a proper lunch rather than a plate of crackers.
Best fit for this section first, then whatever you can book today. Closest to Rome breaks a tie. Never by who pays us.
On two wheelsThirty minutes from Termini by train, then six hours through Frascati vineyards.
€89 per person
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With your handsMake the pasta at a Frascati winery: 22 minutes by train, picked up at the station.
€109 per person
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With your handsThe estate sits in an eighteenth-century casale on a hill at Monte Porzio Catone, thirty hectares of Frascati DOCG vineyard in front and the skyline of Rome beyond.
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With your handsA private visit that starts in the vineyard and ends in the eighteenth-century rooms of the estate, led by a dedicated sommelier or by the owners.
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With your handsA guided tour of a Frascati winery built around a 16th-century villa, including the vineyards and the historic volcanic cave used as a cellar, followed by a tasting.
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With your handsA family estate on the edge of Frascati that makes Frascati wine and extra-virgin olive oil and has a page of its own devoted to events and tastings, alongside pages on the cell…
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With your handsA walk through the vineyard, then the cellar and the barrel room of an organic Frascati estate, ending with a guided tasting of four De Sanctis wines.
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With your handsAn organic estate on the hills at Frascati working the native Frascati DOCG grapes — Malvasia del Lazio, Greco Bianco, Bombino.
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With your handsThe short version: fifteen minutes by train to Tor Vergata, five on foot to the farmhouse, a walk among the vines with views back towards Rome, and three Frascati wines paired w…
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With your handsA driver meets you at Frascati station, takes you to a sixteenth-century family vineyard for a tasting of three boutique wines with snacks, then a guided walk through Frascati a…
See the dayThe red one. Three small appellations in the hills east of Rome, at the point where the Ciociaria starts climbing, made by producers who mostly answer the phone themselves.
Best fit for this section first, then whatever you can book today. Closest to Rome breaks a tie. Never by who pays us.
With your handsAn organic estate at Colletonno, near Anagni, producing Cesanese del Piglio DOCG.
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With your handsThe estate produces Cesanese del Piglio DOCG and takes visitors for a tasting and direct sales on site.
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With your handsA forty-hectare organic estate of vines, olive groves and coppice on the hills at Anagni, producing Cesanese del Piglio DOCG and Passerina del Frusinate along with extra virgin …
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With your handsA visit to the vineyards and cellar at Olevano Romano followed by a tasting of the estate's premium Tenuta al Campo wines with dry savoury snacks, plus its own extra-virgin oliv…
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With your handsA cookery lesson at a wine estate in Piglio in which participants learn to make pasta dough from stone-ground soft wheat flour.
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With your handsA visit to the cellar of a wine estate in Piglio, in the Cesanese del Piglio DOCG area, with a tasting of the estate's wines.
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With your handsAn organic estate in Piglio that produces Cesanese del Piglio DOCG from Cesanese di Affile grapes.
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With your handsA board of local products to share at the Pileum winery in Piglio, with wine by the glass or the bottle charged separately.
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With your handsA tasting of four wines from the current vintages at the Pileum cellar in Piglio, in the Cesanese del Piglio DOCG area.
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With your handsA tasting menu at the restaurant inside the Pileum winery in Piglio, in five or seven courses, with an optional pairing of three of the estate's wines.
See the dayVolcanic soil again, around Lake Bolsena and Montefiascone, and the estates on the way to Orvieto. Quieter than the Castelli and usually cheaper.
Best fit for this section first, then whatever you can book today. Closest to Rome breaks a tie. Never by who pays us.
With your handsA ten-hour day out of Rome with a private driver: your choice between Caprarola with the Farnese palace or Sutri with the Roman amphitheatre and Etruscan necropolis, then an oli…
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With your handsA working winery at Bardano, on the hills facing Orvieto, in a farmstead that belonged to the Templars.
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With your handsA hands-on Umbrian cooking class held at the Decugnano dei Barbi estate outside Orvieto, capped at twelve people so everyone actually cooks.
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With your handsA private, appointment-only tour of a hillside estate 25 minutes from Orvieto, where wine has been made since 1212.
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On two wheelsA full private day out of Rome by train and e-bike: from the Alviano nature reserve in the Tiber valley the route climbs to Civita di Bagnoregio, the hilltop village reached onl…
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With your handsA visit to the underground cellar of the d'Amico estate followed by a guided tasting of three wines (Terre di Ala, Notturno dei Calanchi, Villa Tirrena) with a buffet.
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With your handsA family organic winery in the Teverina hills walks visitors through the vineyards, the olive grove, an Etruscan tomb and the cellar, then pours seven organic wines.
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With your handsThe longer version of the Trebotti tour: vineyards, olive grove, Etruscan tomb and cellar, then a tasting of seven wines with a selection of Tuscia cheeses and a menu of local p…
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With your handsA visit to a Canino mill producing organic Canino DOP extra virgin olive oil, with a guided tasting of four oils served on bruschetta.
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With your handsTasting inside the cellar of a Montefiascone estate, with the winery's award-winning wines served alongside regional cheeses and cured meats.
See the dayMontefalco's Sagrantino is two hours out and one of the great Italian reds. The Sabina, closer in, is olive oil country that also makes wine — and the drive up the Tiber valley is the pretty way north.
Best fit for this section first, then whatever you can book today. Closest to Rome breaks a tie. Never by who pays us.
With your handsA Sabina DOP oil producer that opens its mill and its centuries-old groves to visitors with a tasting.
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With your handsA hands-on day picking olives in the Sabina hills, followed by sorting and selecting the fruit to be sent for milling.
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With your handsA walk through an organic olive grove with the farmer, covering the farming year from pruning to harvest, then an interactive tasting of four Italian extra virgin olive oils led…
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With your handsAn evening at an organic olive farm in the Sabina: a walk through the grove, a guided tasting of the farm's oils and a light supper with olive oil pairings and drinks.
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With your handsA guided walk through the organic olive grove followed by an interactive tasting of four Italian extra virgin olive oils, led by an olive oil sommelier.
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With your handsA walk through themed gardens and organic olive groves at Collevecchio, ending with a tasting of the farm's oil and local products under a large olive tree.
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With your handsAn advanced tasting session led by an official tasting panel recognised by the Italian ministry of agriculture, ending in the tasting room at Castelnuovo di Farfa.
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With your handsA proper tasting course, not a sales pitch, run by Cristina Falcinelli — a professional taster of olive oil and table olives and a member of UMAO, the Mediterranean union of oil…
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With your handsA family winery on the Amerino hills, working since 1960, with a published price list that starts at €5 for two wines and climbs to a vertical of five vintages of the same label.
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With your handsThree hours that pair a walk in the vineyards and a cellar tour with a tasting lunch served in the Barricaia, four cru wines and a seasonal menu built from the estate's own vege…
See the dayDriving time from the middle of Rome, on the road network and without traffic. It tells you whether the day stands up; it is not a timetable.
Getting there
No parking to find, no wrong turns, and you leave when the day is done.
Affiliate link — you pay their price, never more, and they pay us. You book with Welcome Pickups, and anything about that booking goes through them.
See prices on Welcome PickupsAlmost always, yes. These are working estates, not tasting rooms with staff waiting — most of them take one group at a time and need a day or two of notice. Where the operator has a booking page we link straight to it; where they take bookings by phone, the number is on the activity page.
Frascati has a train from Termini and the town is small enough to walk, so a tasting in town works. Estates out in the vineyards do not, as a rule. And on a day that ends in wine, a driver is the better answer anyway.
Frascati and its neighbours — dry whites from Malvasia and Trebbiano grown on the volcanic hills half an hour south of the city. East of there, Cesanese, the red of Lazio, from Piglio, Olevano and Affile. North, the whites of the Tuscia and Orvieto. Two hours out, Montefalco's Sagrantino in Umbria.
In the Castelli, easily: half an hour out, an hour and a half at the estate, and back for the evening. Several Frascati estates run visits built around the railway station for exactly that. Cesanese and the Tuscia are full-day propositions.
It varies by estate and by whether food is included, and where an operator publishes a price we print it with the date we read it. Where they do not, the card says so rather than guessing — and the phone number is there, which is the reliable way to ask.
If you want a red and you want somewhere with no visitors in it, yes. The estates around Piglio and Olevano are small, the wine is not expensive, and the person pouring is usually the person who grew it. It is an hour east rather than half an hour south, which is the whole cost of it.
Decide before the first glass rather than after the third. Frascati has a train and several estates meet it. Everywhere else, a driver for the afternoon split between a few people is the standard solution here and it removes the question entirely.
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