vino

In vino veritas ('In wine there is truth.') Pliny the Elder

I cook with wine; sometimes I even add it to the food. W. C. Fields

This, of course, deserves an app all its own. But in a nutshell, Italy, bathed in Mediterranean sunshine, blessed with an endless variety of terrains, coasts, mountains and hills, is the world's top wine producer, with over a million vineyards on the Big Boot.

Each of its 20 regions produces wine, and each boasts at least one wine accorded DOC status (there are some 330 DOC wines, and some 70 superior DOCG wines all together; the lion's share of the latter are in Piedmont and Tuscany). Yet one of the great pleasures of travelling in Italy is discovering a local gem. Some wine words may help you read the labels.