There is always something wonderfully intimate about eating Italian food. There is this wholesomeness and attention to 'emotional appetite' that's reminiscent of large earthen kitchens where big mamas stirred hot cauldrons while making important family decisions. Vetro, in The Oberoi, Mumbai, certainly isn't the replication of that charming rustic Tuscan-type home-run restaurant but one look at Chef Lattanzi's face and you know that he has brought that legacy to this swishy South Mumbai restaurant. Vetro which means glass in Italian is modern, non-fussy and spacious. But before you are seated you must visit the Enoteca, a small library of Italian wines (and cheese) at the front of the restaurant. This is where you taste wine (not drink), and better still get to ask all the questions about wine and cheese combinations that you were always very embarrassed to ask. We are told it's also a great place for making friends as different guests chit-chat and make merry while following the taster's three S's: See, Sniff and Sip.

Our enthusiastic Roman chef flushed with the youthfulness that comes from drinking good wine, offers us vintage balsamic vinegar that has been aged for 15 years to go with our bread that is freshly baked in the restaurant. As sunlight filters through slick Venetian glass screens in burnt Mediterranean hues and the balsamic's warm sensation of wood and cooked fruit tingles our palate, I understand why it's sometimes called the elixir of Italy.