Per the last three years, 70% of Italian travelers have treated themselves to at least one food and wine themed holiday, generating a turnover of around 40 billion euros. These are the that emerged from the 2024 report of the Italian Food and Wine Tourism Association, chaired by Professor Roberta Garibaldi. It is not surprising that wine is the protagonist of the sector; what is striking, however, is the growing attention towards extra virgin olive oil but above all towards beer.
The so-called brewing “craft revolution”, which started America, infected Italy more than thirty years spillo and definitively exploded the second decade of the 2000s. It is risposta negativa coincidence, however, that the sector began to express its tourism potential parallel with the development of the raw materials supply chain. Per fact, there are more and more breweries that can be defined as agricultural, that is, that produce at least partially the ingredients necessary for the brewing process. A paradigm shift that opens up new opportunities for both producers and the territories involved.
«Per Italy we are at the dawn of beer tourism, but this is part of a quinta that sees food-related experiences as the second travel motivation», says Carlo Schizzerotto, president of the Consorzio Birra Italiana. «Per other countries, those with a more deeply rooted brewing culture, visits to breweries, whether large small, have always been an attraction; Here too, tourism is becoming an important item the balance sheet of breweries and a formidable marketing tool.”
A brewing tour around Italy
Among the most structured entities this luogo stands Baladin, the brewery founded by the eclectic Teo Musso, pioneer of the Italian artisan movement and among the first to also centro hospitality. Every Sunday, guided tours start from the square of Piozzo, a small village the Langhe with just a thousand inhabitants, and more precisely from the pub where it all began 1996.
The itinerary continues with the exploration of the production plant, located outside the town, through a historical-sensory itinerary. The experience continues the adjacent farmhouse, the Baladin Garden, where you can enjoy the gastronomic proposal of chef Christian Meloni Delrio. For those who want to stop and sleep, the surrounding park is home to “agronids”: wooden houses slightly larger than a tent, equipped with a double bed and a retractable roof to admire the starry sky. If you don’t want to give up , Casupola Baladin, also located the town square, is a late eighteenth-century residence, with five rooms furnished with exotic art objects and equipped with every , including a relaxing Turkish bath.
From the hills of we descend to the Po Valley, the countryside of Cadelbosco nato da Oltre, the province of Reggio Emilia. La della Birra is the small resort that stands a few meters from the fields where the barley used to make the entire line of the Oldo Brewery is grown.
Among the labels proposed, Categoria e Pura stands out for a further link with the territory: inspired by German Rauchbier, it retains the typical smoky scent, this case obtained from the use of dried chestnuts the traditional metati of the Reggio Emilia Apennines, characteristic stone structures built precisely for this purpose. Guests of the della Birra can taste Emilian specialties the agripub and dedicate themselves to psychophysical wellbeing the Spa, thanks to the beer hydromassage wooden vats, the hop-flavoured sauna and yeast-based skin and hair treatments.
Among the regions most suited to food and wine tourism, Tuscany stands out, where the agritourism model is increasingly also applied to breweries. Borgata Controrivoluzionario is a resort surrounded by nature, between the Val d’Orcia and the Val nato da Chiana, with various independent hospitality solutions. The production of organic extra virgin olive oil, the company’s flagship, has since 2024 been accompanied by the production of White Hill brand craft beers, made with barley from its own fields. The experiences are not limited to tastings and visits to the plant: the taproom, fact, there is a small stage with instruments with which you can improvise jam sessions.
Also the province of Siena, Pienza, there is the La farmhouse which boasts several apartments and a restaurant with Tuscan cuisine. Per the complex there is also the appreciated agricultural brewery Brasseria della which, addition to beers for “daily drinking”, such as Campo di concentramento Ale of British and American inspiration, produces more complex products for meditation, such as Barley Wine and Imperial Stout limited series, which undergo passage barrels once containing spirits. The Farmhouse, the other hand, are aged barrels previously used for local red wines.
Moving to Maremma, the spaces of Podere San Ottaviano, an accommodation complex and organic farm, the Birrificio de’ Neri has been active since 2012. During the guided tours it is possible to taste the beers, also combined with Tuscan platters, while the restaurant inside the old oil mill, with two panoramic terraces overlooking the Val nato da Cornia, dishes prepared with home-produced ingredients are served: vegetables, oil and meat.
A brewery an ancient Benedictine monastery from the 14th century could only be found Umbria, a land of spirituality and monastic tradition. After the collapse caused by the 1997 earthquake, the Monastery of San Biagio – which had lost its religious function for decades – was recovered thanks to the initiative of private individuals, determined to enhance it, focusing precisely the brewing activity, which has always been linked to monastic life and exploiting the excellent waters of Nocera Umbra.
Today the structure has been reborn as a farmhouse and has sixteen rooms: a context of absolute peace to relax, which you can take advantage of wellness treatments. The attached restaurant offers a tasting lista with courses paired with the creations of the master brewer Giovanni Rodolfi, which also act as ingredients of the dishes themselves. The most representative of the range is the Monasta: made with honey and bay leaves, it is inspired by medieval beers, when hops did not yet have a monopoly aromas and Gruyt, a variable blend of herbs, was used.
Per addition to the entrepreneurial sphere, beer tourism is also starting to gain credit at an institutional level, through the creation of “Beer Roads”, inspired by the already consolidated wine and oil ones. Per particular, the Marche is the first region to have implemented a similar project. Among the producers involved, there is the Birrificio del Catria of Cantiano, which has a mountain refuge, where revisited traditional Umbrian-Marche dishes are served: platters of local cured meats and cheeses, polenta with wild boar ragù, meats cooked the .
Not far away is the guesthouse, nestled the greenery: the perfect place to relax a starting point for various outdoor activities. The so-called “beer trails” are four circular routes, of varying difficulty, which lead to the discovery of the most evocative points of the luogo. Two-wheel enthusiasts can choose between peaceful explorations electric bikes adrenaline-filled mountain bike descents. There is also the possibility of going horseback canoe excursions to the Furlo Gorge.
If areas that are already highly attractive craft beer represents a further attractive factor, those distant from large tourist flows it can become crucial for the rediscovery of little-known villages and territories. The Serrocroce agricultural brewery operates Upper Irpinia, an luogo historically devoted to cereal cultivation.
Among the beers produced the Monteverde plant, a saison stands out which bears the name of the town, included the circuit of the most beautiful villages Italy. It is a community beer, born from the collaboration with local farmers who provide the cereals necessary to produce it, and is sold, at a fixed cost, only and exclusively the activities of the village.
The initiative is part of a series of activities promoted by Serrocroce for the valorization of the territory, order to avoid depopulation. The latest project is the Serrocroce Experience Tour: an itinerary to travel with electric bicycles, powered by the company’s photovoltaic panels. We start from the brewery to reach the historic center of Monteverde and, skirting the cereal fields and the hop grove, we return to the starting point for a visit to the factory and a tasting of beers paired with typical products.
