Few images capture the Veneto Middle Ages like the silhouette of Soave: a village gathered within a ring of battlemented walls that climb the hill up to the castle, amid rows of vines producing one of Italy's best-known white wines. We are some twenty kilometres east of Verona, at the mouth of Val d'Alpone, in a town that seems frozen in time.
The Scaliger Castle
The Scaliger Castle dominates the town from the top of the hill. Enlarged and strengthened by the Della Scala family in the fourteenth century, the fortress still has its keep, wall-walks and three courtyards crossed on the way up to the highest point. From there the eye sweeps over the Veronese plain and the wine hills. Its present fairy-tale, perfectly preserved appearance owes much to the great nineteenth-century restoration commissioned by senator Giulio Camuzzoni, who saved the complex from ruin.
What makes Soave special is precisely the bond between castle and town: from the towers of the fortress the walls descend to embrace the whole village, with their 24 towers, forming one of the best-preserved medieval fortified systems in the Veneto.
Within the walls: what to see in the village
You enter the centre through the old gates and find yourself in a maze of cobbled streets. The heart is Piazza Antenna, overlooked by elegant Gothic palaces such as the Palazzo di Giustizia and the Palazzo Scaligero, today the town hall. It is worth losing yourself among the shops, pausing before the frescoed houses and reaching the parish church. Everything in Soave is comfortably explored on foot.
Soave, city of wine
The name of Soave is inseparable from its white wine, produced here for centuries mainly from the Garganega grape. The hills around the village, of volcanic and limestone origin, yield fresh, savoury, long-lived wines, from classic Soave to its more structured versions. Many wineries in the town and surroundings welcome visitors for tastings and walks among the vineyards, along a route of flavour that is now an integral part of the visit.
Soave wine is, above all, a wine of the table: a fresh white with good structure, made to accompany food. In the villages between Soave and Roncà, where the wine is born, the cuisine has been shaped around this white: fresh pasta, sea fish cooked in the Vicentine way, valley game. It is in this corner of the Veneto, between cellar and table, that you truly grasp the bond between hill and taste.
A tip for the table
Where to stop for a meal nearby
After a stroll along the walls and a glass of Soave at a winery, it is worth driving a few kilometres down into Val d'Alpone: in Terrossa di Roncà, Antica Trattoria Fattori (Since 1929) serves the cuisine of the land: home-made pasta, game, the famous baccalà alla vicentina and the wines of these hills.
location_onVia Piazza Terrossa 36, Roncà (VR)
call+39 045 746 0133
languageanticatrattoriafattori.com
When to go and how to get there
Soave lies about 25 kilometres from Verona and is very easy to reach: the Soave-San Bonifacio exit of the A4 motorway is just minutes from the centre. Every season has its charm, but the liveliest moment is autumn, when the traditional September grape festival animates the streets of the village with floats, new wine and local specialities.
Walls, wine and good food: Soave and the nearby Val d'Alpone can be visited together in a single, pleasant day out.