Calici di Stelle (Veneto) is one of the wine festivals that anchors the Veneto calendar, drawing both local visitors and international wine travellers each year. The festival is held at participating wineries and villages across Veneto, in the heart of the Veneto wine area. It is an annual event with an established local audience and a consistent place in the regional calendar.
Italy's most romantic wine evening, held around the Night of San Lorenzo when the Perseid meteor shower peaks. Organised jointly by Movimento Turismo del Vino and Città del Vino, the event runs across hundreds of villages, wineries and historic squares from northern Italy down to Sicily. In Veneto, participating wineries and town councils organise open-air tastings combining the area's wines with local food, live music and stargazing. Calici di Stelle takes its name from the Night of San Lorenzo on 10 August, when the Perseid meteor shower peaks over Italy. Wineries and town councils across the region run open-air tastings under the night sky, often combined with local food, live music and astronomy programmes. The atmosphere is relaxed and family-friendly, with wines typically poured in the form of guided tasting flights through the participating area. The event is organised jointly by Movimento Turismo del Vino and Città del Vino, with each participating town or winery setting its own programme within the broader nationwide framework. Many editions include amateur astronomers giving talks during the evening, adding a cultural dimension to the wine tasting itself. The event is organised by Movimento Turismo del Vino + Città del Vino, which sets the tone and direction of the programme each year.
Veneto is Italy's largest wine region by volume, producing Prosecco from the Conegliano-Valdobbiadene hills (a UNESCO-listed cultural landscape), Amarone della Valpolicella and Ripasso from the appassimento hills above Verona, Soave from the volcanic slopes east of the city, and Bardolino and Lugana from around Lake Garda. The region hosts Vinitaly — the world's largest wine trade fair — every April, and wine tourism here benefits from the proximity of Verona, Venice and Lake Garda.
The 2026 edition is scheduled for around 10 August 2026 (Night of San Lorenzo). Festival access is ticketed: Paid (tasting pass, ~€10–25). Full programme, ticketing and updated information are published on the official site at https://www.movimentoturismovino.it/it/calici-di-stelle. Visitors are advised to check directly with the organiser for the latest schedule, as Italian festival programmes are sometimes updated close to the event date.
Veneto is reached via Venice (Marco Polo airport, water transport from there to the historic centre), Verona, Treviso or Padua. A festival visit combines well with Verona's Roman amphitheatre and Romeo and Juliet sites, the Prosecco hills above Conegliano-Valdobbiadene, the Palladian villas of the Brenta riviera, and the south-Lake Garda towns of Sirmione, Bardolino and Peschiera del Garda. Venetian cuisine — risotto, polenta, baccalà mantecato, sarde in saor — pairs well with the regional wines.
