Plumbing not prayer put wine in town's taps

WHEN wine started flowing through taps in dozens of homes during an Italian grape festival it was hailed as a miracle, but it has now emerged it was more bad plumbing than divine intervention.

Sparkling chilled white wine instead of water flowed from taps during the Marino Grape Festival.

As part of the famous celebration, free wine usually flows from the marble fountain in the square, but the pipes from the local vineyard were mistakenly switched to the domestic supply to homes at Marino, in the wine-making Alban Hills region, south of Rome.

One local, Anna, said: "I was in the kitchen ready to do the housework and filled up a bucket with water.

"I was going to mop the floor with it, but I noticed a sweet smell from the tap and it was also slightly yellow – I recognised instantly it was wine."

She went on: "The word quickly spread and everyone filled up bottles and plastic containers with the wine."