Food and Wine Festivals

In this juiced-up battle, the grapes have already been squished and fermented, so participants need only wineskins, plastic jugs, trashcans, water guns, or crop sprayers to spill, spritz, and splash the other 9,000 revelers at the Batalla del Vino or Wine Battle, in Haro, part of Spain's Rioja region.

Join Akaroa people as they paint the town red, white and blue for a town-wide market day with French food and wine stalls, market stalls, entertainment, fun and frivolous competitions and a re-enactment of the first French landing in Akaroa

It was on my very first trip to Italy where I stumbled on this food and wine tasting adventure to rival all others. An annual celebration - 2003 being its tenth anniversary - it was only by chance that I happened to be in Italy during the last weekend of May to catch up with two old school friends from Australia, one of whom was Italian.

The sparkling new, first-time-ever, 'New World Wine and Food Festival' roared into San Antonio like a comet. If I had to use one word to describe the whole extravaganza I would choose: spectacular.

The word 'Spain' invokes images of a most vibrant nation, Latin passion, proud bull-fighters, flamencos, and of course, of Carmen and Don Juan. Seville in the Andalusian region in southern Spain is the very embodiment of the Spanish character and spirit, and its cultural richness is best manifested by the annual week-long festival in this city during the last week of April -- Abril Feria, or April Fair.

A couple of years ago, on our last evening in Florence, our friend Monique crammed us into her Fiat and took us for a short drive, just a few minutes away from the city. The place was Chiesanuova, the time was mid-June, and the celebration was the Sagra di'Pinolo -- the Pine Nut festival.