Farm holidays near Verona and Lake Garda, Italy

Offering farm holidays near Verona and Lake Garda, Italy, Villa Spinosa offers an idyllic setting for enjoying the best of this beautiful region of Italy - on a working farm and winery famed for its superb production of classic Italian wines.

Villa Spinosa may also be used as a venue for entertaining and for very lively events. The panoramic position, amidst vineyards and a romantic Italian garden, with picturesque old buildings, courtyard and cellars make the villa the ideal setting for pleasant occasions such as parties, anniversaries, weddings, lunches and private dinners. An expert catering service makes all this possible. The charm of the venue coupled with excellent management and organisation and real style will make any occasion an unforgettable experience.

Each year the villa hosts the "Notti di Note, in Valpolicella" music festival. These classical music concerts are organized by the Francesca Finato Spinosa Cultural Association in collaboration with other local bodies. In these summer moonlit nights, the rural courtyards originally dedicated to farm work, and renovated to their original glory, offer a backdrop for classical music and create an enchanting atmosphere. At the end of each concert a tasting of Villa Spinosa wines is offered in the atmospherically lit garden.

Villa Spinosa does not just limit itself to musical evenings but is also involved in other events dedicated to art, history, poetry and literature. The old rooms in which the wine is aged in barriques are the setting for photographic exhibitions, with the works framed by the stone walls. The old vat room, once used for the pressing and fermentation of the grapes, has been restructured and is now a venue for cultural events, debates and book presentations. The display of old agricultural equipment in this room also offers an insight into the old traditions of winemaking. Each cultural event concludes with a tasting ... a perfect cultural mix of the setting, the wine and the land.

And wine is everything here, of course. The production regulations state that the name "Classico" may only be used for wines made from grapes cultivated and vinified within the area of the five villages of the Classico zone, these are Negrar, Marano, Fumane, San Pietro Incariano and Sant'Ambrogio. It is possible to view the technical details of each of the wines. These describe everything you may wish to know about the wines including the denomination, characteristics of the production zone, vines, cultivation methods, harvesting, vinification, ageing and food matching.

The name Valpolicella, used to indicate the region stretching from the southwest slopes of the Monti Lessini to the bend of the River Adige as it slopes downwards towards Verona after the mouth with the River Chiusa, first appears in the 12th century. Before this time it was not mentioned and it is only from the 12th century onwards that the name “Vallis Pulicella” appears. In earlier documents, the valleys of Variago (covering the easternmost part of the present Valpolicella and corresponding to the area covering the village of Negrar) and Pruviniano (Val Provinianense, which covers the remaining central portion) are mentioned. The distinction disappears halfway through the 12th century during the period of the rule of the city of Verona, when the city’s officials reached the valley by the Adige and landed at the river port of Pol, the place from which the name Valpolicella is derived.

Later, the region was formed into an estate and entrusted to Federico della Scala, cousin of Cangrande, who assumed the title of Count of Valpolicella. After the rule of Federico della Scala, the Valpolicella, which had become an administrative unit, gained the form which it still maintains today. Today at Villa Spinosa, you can taste the fruit of these centuries of careful work, with a full programme of tastings (complemented by superb local dishes and produce).

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