The majestic winding hills and the majestic Antonia Marina, the symbol of Turin, are just around the corner, one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
Venice’s lagoon landscape is surrounded by abandoned vineyards, which we can still see today. Under the shade of the dome of Santa Maria del Grazie in Milan grows Leonardo’s vineyard.
Ninety-five native vines intertwine in the Botanical Gardens of Palermo, Sicily. Then there are the ancient vineyards planted both inside and outside the walls of Siena, the most memorable views of the Middle Ages.
So, Italian vineyards can also grow in cities. Gardeners and academics who have worked in vineyard restoration and restoration have known this for years.
Although abandoned for many years, the vineyards remain a true legacy of Italian history.
Combining the common goal of protecting historical, winemaking and landscape heritage, protecting vineyards located in the city center and strengthening the protection of these heritage from the perspective of culture and tourism, an urban vineyard association – UVA was created at home and abroad, Network with other urban vineyards internationally.
Founded in Turin in 2019 at the initiative of Luca Balbiano of Villa della Regina, the association brings together the surviving vineyards, treasures of biodiversity in the city center Taken together, its history is long and beautiful.
Luca Barbiano, president of the UVA association, explains: “This project was born very recently, even if its roots are far away, our colleagues are winemakers who have been carrying out an urban viticulture project for many years, in this In the project, they speak not only about wine, but about its history, culture, centuries-old traditions, and in some cases even millennia.
After research in 2018, we brought together the first six urban Winemakers, the association was founded the following year. Today we are eleven people, scattered across Italy and the rest of the world”.
On the urban slopes of the Turin hills stands the Villa della Regina in Turin, commissioned in 1600 by Maurizio di Savoia.
In addition to the residential area in Villa Regina, there are also indispensable agricultural and leisure parts. After being devastated by the bombing of World War II, it was abandoned for many years, but the vineyard was restored between 2003 and 2006, thanks to a commission from the Piedmontese Historical, Artistic and Ethno-Anthropological Heritage Authority, commissioned by Balbi Château Arno is in the process of restoring it.
It has been replanted with 2,700 vines of Chieri’s Freisa di Chieri red grape variety. The pollution of the city does not affect the vineyards, which are located above the city, away from the road and behind the villas.
The beehives here confirm this, because bees only live where the air is good.
The association Laguna nel Bicchiere was born out of the curiosity of Flavio Franceschet, who in 1993 discovered the vineyards of the lagoon, especially Saint-Ele San Francesco della Vigna vineyards on the island of Sant’Elena.
This was once the central area of Venice’s history. Since then, through the Lagoon in a Wineglass project, abandoned vineyards in the lagoon have been restored to uphold tradition and preserve the original, re-presenting those little-known landscapes and revealing their hidden urban-rural relations.
The San Francesco della Vigna vineyard in Venice is the oldest urban vineyard in the city. There are three cloisters in total, two used as vegetable gardens and vineyards, while the third collects rainwater, which is then used for irrigation.
Since 2019 the vineyards have been tended by agronomists from the Santa Margherita group who have replaced the ancient teroldego grapes with Glera and The Malvasia grape produces about 2,000 bottles of wine per year.
Senarum Vinea Project “Senarum Vinea”: a project conceived in Siena, Tuscany, in collaboration with the Etruscan Science and Antiquities Laboratory of the University of Siena, to recognize and strengthen the local viticultural heritage and the history of urban forms of cultivation, established and promoted by the National Association of Cities of Wine with the donation of the Monte dei Paschi di Siena Foundation, carte blanche to the agricultural company of Castel di Pugna.
This is an experimental path that promises to rediscover 20 centuries-old vine lines that have survived to this day but may have been forgotten or are at risk of extinction: Gorgottesco, Tenerone (tenerone), Salamanna (salamanna), prugnolo gentile, rossone, mammolo.
The Rooster Vineyard (Vigna del Gallo) in the Botanical Gardens of Palermo, Sicily, one of the most important academic institutions in Italy, is a huge open-air museum with more than 5000 species of plants, including 95 species of native vines, the epitome of Sicilian viticulture priceless legacy.
It is a tangible testimony to the biodiversity of the island. The project was launched in October 2018 in collaboration with the Museum System of the University of Palermo, the Sicilian DOC Wine Conservation Association and the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Palermo.
The area of the Ayam Vineyard is about 200 square meters. It has native vines (including Grillo, nero d’Avola, frappato, perricone, catarratto, Inzolia and relic vines prunella, muscaredda, corinto bianco, cutrera, zuccaratu , Visparola.
The latest arrival of UVA winemakers is the Etna City Winery in Sicily, a tourism hospitality project that takes visitors between Mount Etna and the city of Catania urban vineyards. Here, a site that had been abandoned for more than 60 years was restored to its original purpose, an ancient vineyard with wine cellar.
In fact, there are similar associations internationally such as “La vigna Clos Montmartre” in Paris, “Clos de Canuts” in Lyon, “il Clos della vigna al Palais des Papes” in Avignon, and recently “Rooftop” in Brooklyn with a view of Manhattan. Reds”.
President Barbiano continued: “What we want to do is not to sell wine, but to develop a cultural and tourism project and tell the stories behind urban viticulture”.
