Did you know that in Abruzzo there is a fountain from which wine flows?

Inaugurated on 9 October 2016, the wine fountain in Caldari di Ortona is the first in Italy. There are others in Marino (Rome), Carosino (Taranto) and San Floriano di Collio (Gorizia), but they are only opened to coincide with certain events or anniversaries, while wine flows continuously from the one in Abruzzo.

It is located along the Cammino di San Tommaso, a spiritual path from Rome to Ortona where the remains of the Apostle Thomas are preserved in the cathedral. The Way is promoted and supported by a non-profit organisation, and it was precisely two of the founders of the Way, Dina Cespa and Luigi Narcisi, who came up with the idea of the fountain following the example of the one in the Botegas Irache that welcomes wayfarers arriving in Estella, Navarre.
The project immediately received the support of Nicola D'Auria, who owns the Dora Sarchese winery, one of the most renowned in Abruzzo, right along the Saint Thomas Way. The group was then joined by architect Rocco Valentini, who oversaw the realisation, and the project took off.
The fountain is placed inside a large barrel that can hold one person, a suggestive and curious choice, and on the inside walls one can read an inscription dedicated to those who come there: 'Drink wine, you don't know where you came from, be happy because you know where you are going'.

The choice of the inauguration day, 9 October, was not accidental as it coincided with the conclusion of the harvest and crushing of the Montepulciano Storico Nitae, as in the culmination phase of wine production.

From that day on, therefore, those who find themselves passing through Caldari along the Cammino di San Tommaso, or discovering the land of Abruzzo, can quench their thirst at the fountain from which the red wine of the excellent wine cellar flows.