Vinitaly Verona: the Wine Fair, the 2027 Dates and How to Plan Around It

What is Vinitaly and who is it for?

Vinitaly is a four-day international wine trade fair held each April at Veronafiere, Verona's exhibition complex, and it is closed to the general public on its trade days, which is the single fact that most often catches visitors out. It is the largest event of its kind in Italy: the 2026 edition drew 90,000 attendees, 26 percent of them international, from 135 countries, alongside 4,000 exhibiting companies, per the fair's own closing figures. That scale explains both why the fair matters and why Verona changes character so completely during those days.

The fair is a business event. Exhibitors are producers, mostly Italian, pouring for importers, distributors, buyers and press. If you work in the trade, that is the point: the fair's buyer programme hosted over 1,000 top buyers from more than 70 countries in 2026. If you are a visitor on holiday, the trade halls are not where you belong, and the fair does not sell you a casual walk-in tasting ticket in the way a wine festival would.

That does not mean travellers should ignore Vinitaly week. The city runs a parallel public programme, Vinitaly and the City, which turns central Verona venues into ticketed tasting events, and the whole week has a buzz that wine-interested visitors often enjoy even without a trade badge. The trade edition's 2027 dates are 11 to 14 April at Veronafiere, and the public programme runs 9 to 11 April, according to the organiser's published calendar.

For context on what the region pours at these events, the Valpolicella denominations, from the basic DOC through Ripasso to Amarone, dominate the Verona stands, and they are the wines most worth understanding before you arrive.

Where is Vinitaly in 2026?

Vinitaly is held at Veronafiere, the exhibition centre in the south-west of Verona, the same venue every year, and there is no 2026 edition left to attend: the fair ran in April 2026 and the next editions are 11 to 14 April 2027 for the trade fair and 9 to 11 April 2027 for Vinitaly and the City. People ask "where is Vinitaly in 2026" because the fair's name travels further than its venue does, so the answer worth memorising is the recurring one: Veronafiere, Viale del Lavoro 8, a ten-minute bus ride or a half-hour walk from Verona Porta Nuova station, on the western edge of the city.

The venue is fixed by design. Veronafiere is one of Italy's major permanent fairgrounds, and Vinitaly has anchored its spring calendar for decades. When you see a "Vinitaly" event announced in another city, it is usually a satellite or international edition, not the parent fair. The Verona original is the one the whole April week is built around.

Here is the calendar at a glance:

The 2027 trade dates are confirmed on the organiser's calendar, and Vinitaly and the City's 2027 dates, 9 to 11 April, are published on the Veronafiere site. Ticket prices for the trade days are dynamic and not published in a stable form we can quote, so check the fair's ticketing page directly if you hold a trade qualification.

How do the trade days differ from Vinitaly and the City?

The trade days are badge-only business halls at Veronafiere, while Vinitaly and the City is the public programme in central Verona with tasting events anyone can book, running 9 to 11 April 2027, and the two audiences barely overlap in practice. The distinction matters because travellers who arrive in fair week expecting to "go to Vinitaly" sometimes discover that the pavilions they pictured are closed to them, while the events actually open to them are scattered through the historic centre instead.

In 2026, the City programme sold a tasting carnet at EUR 18 online, EUR 22 on site, valid for four tasting tokens plus an experience token (checked September 2026). That gives you a feel for the format: walkable venues, token-based tastings, an evening atmosphere rather than a trade-floor one. The 2027 carnet pricing had not been published when we checked, so treat 2026 as the shape of the thing, not a promise of the price.

Trade visitors spend their days in the halls and their evenings in the city; the public programme is built for people whose trip to Verona is the wine country itself. If you are planning a holiday, the city's year-round tasting rooms, enoteche and cellar bars do not depend on fair week at all, and our Verona wine tasting guide covers them in full.

If your reason for being in Verona that week is pleasure rather than business, the strongest move is to treat the fair as scenery and build your own tasting days around it. The three options above are a good starting spread: a ninety-minute hillside tasting close to the city, a historic cellar visit, and a small-group half-day with transport. All three carry free cancellation on their listings, so you can reserve early and adjust if the fair schedule shifts under you.

How hard is it to find a hotel during Vinitaly week?

Fair week is one of Verona's peak demand periods, with trade visitors booking rooms months ahead, so expect high rates and low availability in the city centre from roughly 9 to 14 April 2027, and book as early as you can, ideally before the new year. Verona's hotel stock is modest for a city that hosts a 90,000-attendee fair, and the trade crowd arrives on expense accounts, which pushes centre prices up sharply.

Two practical notes help. First, the city's 2026 tourist tax runs at EUR 5 per person per night for five-star hotels, EUR 4.50 for four-star and EUR 3.50 for three-star, capped at four nights (checked September 2026), so factor that on top of the room rate. Second, driving in fair week compounds the problem: the historic centre's camera-controlled limited-traffic zone is closed to unregistered visitor cars at all times, and the 2026 parking plan charges EUR 2 per hour inside the ZTL ring and EUR 1.50 in the Zona Blu just outside (checked September 2026). Hotel guests can enter the ZTL only after the hotel registers their plate, and that applies to hotels, not holiday lets.

Staying outside the centre softens all of this. The wine villages west of the city, Negrar at 14 km or San Pietro in Cariano at 15 km, are twenty to twenty-five minutes from central Verona by car, and lakeside Lazise is 26 km out. Our day trips from Verona guide maps the options if you want to sleep in wine country and commute in.

One fair-week pattern worth knowing: trade visitors clear out of the halls by early evening, and many tastings in the hills above the city run late-afternoon sessions that catch exactly that gap. A ninety-minute panoramic tasting above Verona is the format most often slotted between the close of the halls and dinner, and in fair week those slots go first.

Can you fit a wine tasting around the fair schedule?

Yes, and it is the best way to use the fair's quieter hours: a ninety-minute hillside tasting above Verona or a half-day cellar visit in Valpolicella slots neatly between or after fair sessions, as long as you reserve ahead, because fair week fills the tasting rooms just as it fills the hotels. The fair halls close in the early evening, and Vinitaly and the City events run late, which leaves mid-afternoon gaps and full free days for the surrounding wine country.

The tightest option is a winery-direct tasting at a family cantina in the hills above Verona: five wines, from a white IGT through Valpolicella, Valpolicella Superiore and Ripasso up to Amarone, served with a cold-cuts and cheese platter and a panoramic view, in about an hour and a half. It rates 4.9 across 279 reviews and costs from around $53 per person (checked September 2026). There is no transport, you meet at the winery, and the group is capped at twenty, so it works as a self-scheduled block rather than a half-day commitment. The listing carries a popular-pick label, which in fair week translates to one thing: reserve early.

If you have a full free afternoon, a small-group half-day Amarone tasting tour with transport is the classic first Valpolicella outing: hotel pickup in Verona, two winery visits and two tastings including Amarone and Ripasso, run by a B-Corp-certified operator. It rates 4.9 across over 760 reviews and costs from around $145 per person (checked September 2026). It often sells out, verified on the listing, and fair week makes that more likely, not less.

The budget end of the cellar spectrum is a historic-estate visit at a Bertani family villa in Marano di Valpolicella, 18 km from central Verona: a sommelier-led tasting of four or six wines in a shared group, from around $42 per person (checked September 2026), the cheapest Amarone cellar visit in our set. The duration is on the listing, and the listing mentions pickup and drop-off, so check the listing for the pickup option rather than assuming hotel pickup. It often sells out too.

For comparison, here is how the three formats stack up for a fair-week visitor:

One more planning note: if you are driving yourself to any of these, Italy's blood-alcohol limit is 0.5 g/l, and zero for drivers under 21, drivers in the first three years of a licence, and professional drivers. Tastings add up faster than people expect, so a tour with transport, or a single winery you reach by taxi, is the safer structure.

A few practical notes on timing. The hillside cantina tasting runs year-round, so it is available on fair days whenever a slot is open. The Bertani estate visit runs on set dates through the year, so check the listing for availability in fair week. The half-day Amarone tour runs year-round, so all three options overlap with the fair itself. If you are booking for a group, the hillside cantina can be booked as a private option, and the Bertani estate offers a private version of the four-wine tasting, both worth checking if your fair delegation wants the room to itself.

Booking details are worth knowing before fair week. The hillside cantina tasting offers free cancellation up to 24 hours in advance, and the half-day Amarone tour comes with the same 24-hour free cancellation window. The Bertani estate visit, at the budget end, also comes with free cancellation, in line with the other options on the page. That shared 24-hour window matters if your fair schedule shifts at the last minute, so none of the three locks you in early.

What is Amarone Opera Prima, the winter counterpart?

Amarone Opera Prima is the Consorzio's annual preview event where producers present the new Amarone vintage, held in Verona in late January or early February, and it is the closest thing to a public-facing Vinitaly moment in winter, with weekend tasting sessions open to enthusiasts rather than trade badges. The 2026 edition ran 31 January to 1 February at the Gallerie Mercatali at Veronafiere, presenting the 2021 vintage with 67 producers and public tasting sessions on the Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

The event is smaller and more focused than the April fair: one denomination, one new vintage, a weekend rather than a week. For a traveller it is arguably better value, because the public sessions are genuine walk-around tastings rather than trade meetings, and winter Verona is quiet in a way April Verona never is. The 2027 date had not been published when we checked, so plan on "usually late January or early February" and watch the event's site.

The two events frame the region's year. Opera Prima in winter previews what the producers have in bottle; Vinitaly in April is where the trade sells it. Amarone itself, from the Corvina and Rondinella grapes to the three-to-four-month drying that defines it, is what most of those stands are pouring, and it is worth understanding the wine before you taste your way through either event.

How should a first-time visitor structure a Vinitaly week?

Plan the fair around three blocks: the trade or public sessions you actually have access to, one tasting experience inside the city, and one half-day in the wine country, with every reservation made before you arrive, because fair week punishes improvisation harder than any other week of the Verona year. Hotels, cellar reservations and even restaurant tables tighten up, and the visitors who enjoy the week most are the ones who booked in January.

A shape that works: arrive on the Saturday or Sunday as Vinitaly and the City opens, use the public programme's evening events as your city entertainment, keep one afternoon free for a hillside tasting above Verona, and give one full day to Valpolicella or Soave before or after the trade days (see Is Valpolicella worth visiting?). The winery norm across the region is reservation required, most estates open Monday to Saturday, and standard cellar tours with tastings usually run about EUR 25 to 80 per person, typically EUR 40 to 60, with premium, vertical and lunch formats at EUR 100 to 150 (checked September 2026). Check each room's own list.

If you want to go deeper on where to drink and visit beyond fair week, our guide to wineries near Verona covers the estates within easy reach of the city. This is also the week that Verona Wine Tours plans around every spring, and the pattern holds year after year: the fair itself is the trade's business, while the surrounding valleys are what most travellers actually remember.

For the fair itself, the organiser's calendar at Vinitaly's official site is the source for 2027 ticketing, and the City programme's dates are on the Veronafiere event page. Opera Prima's own schedule appears at the event's site once the winter edition is announced.

Vinitaly runs every April at Veronafiere in Verona, with the 2027 trade edition on 11 to 14 April and the public Vinitaly and the City programme on 9 to 11 April, and the answers below cover tickets, access, hotels and how to fit tastings around the fair. These are the questions travellers ask most before booking a fair-week trip.

Common questions about Vinitaly Verona