When my good friend, wine collector and entrepreneur Adam Japko asked me to help him create the wine component of his Wine & Design Italy 2016 tour earlier this year, he was a bit surprised when I suggested that we take the group out for pizza.

A number of the dinners on the trip are to be held at wineries or in famous “wine” restaurants along our route.

“But a pizzeria?” he chuckled. “Are you sure?”

That was before I explained to him that we would be experiencing the pizza of the future at the legendary Pizzeria i Tigli in San Bonifacio near Verona and pairing it with one of my favorite natural wines, Gambellara by Angiolino Maule’s Biancara estate.

Simone Padoan’s pizza (above) isn’t just special because of the creative and colorful toppings he uses (including crudo). The thing that takes his cooking into a new gastronomic sphere is his unchecked passion for native yeast and diehard devotion to wholesome ingredients. It’s possibly the most healthy pizza in the world and in my experience it’s one of the most delicious.

And what better wine to pair with it than Maule’s Gaganega (the primary grape used in sister appellations Gambellara and Soave)? After all, Angiolino Maule is one of the world’s greatest advocates for natural wine and chemical-free viticulture (he’s the founder of Vinnatur, arguably the most radical of the natural wine movement’s fairs).

It’s just one of the stops on our weeklong tour. Check out the complete itinerary and registration details here. It’s going to be a blast… and it’s sure to blow more than one mind.