Live In It - Per conoscere e vivere l'Italia

 “Villa dell’Arcivescovo” is set in Montericco, in the countryside near Imola: the hills are full of vineyards. Driving through the wood, you are suddenly surprised by the sight of a small exquisite eighteenth formal garden and a small labyrinth hidden behind the bushes.

Surrounded by ancient oaks you are struck by an ancient tower, lovely home of the historical Codronchi Family.

The well known Arcivescovo Antonio Codronchi (1751 -1818), important for his ecclesiastic ideas but also for politics, friend of Napoleon, used to live in Montericco and receive important political people from Bologna, Naples, Venice and elsewhere. His niece married Count Pasolini dall’Onda of Ravenna, and inherited Montericco. In Imola the Bishop Mastai Ferretti often discussed with Giuseppe Pasolini on Italian Unity and politics. Particularly when the Bishop was elected Pope as Pio IX.

For centuries they loved and took care of Montericco; the gardens, the labyrinth and the alleys were slowly planted generation after generation and reflected the changing of the image of the landscape but also the importance of the new botanic studies.

In the fertile Romagna, the vineyards very well known since the Eighteenth Century: Sangiovese, Cabernet Franc and others as Pinot Bianco, Pinot Nero, Merlot, Chardonnay produced fine wines. A long quality tradition had been confirmed in 1850 when Count Giuseppe Pasolini dall’Onda, advised by Count Camillo Benso di Cavour invited to Montericco the famous French expert in enology Louis Oudart, who had obtained a great success with the Barolo Wine in Piedmont. In those years Montericco became also a center for patriots who fought for Italian Unity. Around the Villa of the Arcivescovo grows a wood, where you can see fallow deers and pheasants, hares and squirrels, and the park, the formal Italian gardens, beds of roses and lavender and beautiful grand cedars (Atlantic and from Lebanon). Each generation contributed to enrich the park but respected its secret charm.

The great grandmother of the present generation of the Pasolini dall’Onda, Maria Pasolini Ponti (1868-1939), well known for her studies on Italian  gardens, helped to preserve the secret charm of the park of Montericco.

Most of Italian and European gardens have lost their wide horizons but here in Montericco though the town is quite near, vineyards and park live in a silent harmonious unity; far away, in a blue shade, you see the Appennines.

We owe this rare secret atmosphere to the present owners Nicolò and Desideria Pasolini dall’Onda (both created “Dimore Storiche” and  “Italia Nostra”).

You can visit the vineyards and the gardens only with reservation, in groups. From May the 15^th to June the 30^th and from August the 25^st and October the 10^th (for references please call 0039.335.7297264).  You may visit also the 17^th cellar.

You can taste the well known wines of the Pasolini dall’Onda properties (Romagna) and the Pasolini dall’Onda Borghese Chianti (Tuscany).

With the ticket (you buy at the entrance), you can visit the vineyards and the gardens.

It is possible to let a furnished flat for a visit of a week (but with an early reservation).

Imola: 1 km. You can visit the Castle called La Rocca, built on a plan of the town by Leonardo da Vinci. The museum of the Ceramics.

Restaurant: San Domenico (very refined).

Surroundings:

Dozza: 3 km: you can visit a castle known as La Rocca built by the old family from Bologna Marchesi Malvezzi Campeggi.

Castel san Pietro: 6 km. Important “Baths Therms” and a Golf Club.

Faenza: 14 km, beautiful “piazza”. Important the visit to the International Museum of Ceramics, one of the richest in Europe and the well known Neoclassic Palazzo Milzetti.

Riolo Terme: 10 km, important “Baths Therms” and the Golf Club.

Ravenna: 40 km on autoroute. Famous the “Basiliche” richly decorated with Byzantine mosaics: San Vitale, Sant’Apollinare, Battistero, Sant’Apollinare in Classe.

Restaurants: La Bella Venezia and il Gallo.

Milano Marittima: 6 km from Ravenna. Lovely well known Pineta di Classe and a Golf Club, one of the best in Italy with 27 holes. Very well equipped beaches.

Urbino: 140 km in the south near the autoroute Roma-Ancona: the splendid Renaissance town with the beautiful Palazzo Ducale.

You can easily go for the day to Florence in less than two hours (Autostrada A1) and to Venice on the Autostrada  Bologna–Venezia in less than two hours.