Sorbara

Lambrusco di Sorbara

In a fertile strip of land where the Secchia and Panaro rivers draw so near as to almost touch, there the core of Lambrusco di sorbara is to be found, produced in the vineyards nourished by the alluvial solis of the two rivers.

Itinerary in the Historic Centre

Sorbara is the hamlet that gives its name to the homonymous vine and Lambrusco wine. Sorbara is quoted in a document of 1084, in which the defeat of Henry IV by the troops of the Countess Matilda of Canossa is mentioned. However, a legend has it that the troops of the Emperor were not defeated by the Countess, but by the Lambrusco wine: the soldiers of the Emperor enjoyed it so much that the night before the battle they drank it in huge amounts, and the following day they were completely "knocked out", carried away by the alcohol.

Travelling in the direction of Sorbara from Bomporto, we merge on the socalled Canaletto road, and following the directions, we arrive to Bastiglia. The Museum of Bastiglia presents with tools, pictures and various objects the history of paesant life, which has marked the character of the inhabitants of the place. From Bastiglia our itinerary leads us to Soliera, whose name suggests that this territory has rural origins and in its past times its inhabitants were mainly committed to agriculture. In fact, the name Soliera comes from the Latin word "solarium", which was the open-air loft where wheat was left to dry under the sun. In the surroundings of Soliera, in the depths of his countryside, we meet marvellous aristocratic villas, the most noteworthy being the sixteenth-century Casino Vecchi. Going back to Modena from Soliera, we arrive to Campogalliano, either through Via Emilia and the Modena ring road following the directions to Carpi, or by taking the motorway spur between the A1 toll road and the Brenner toll road A22, whose exit is exactly in Campogalliano. In Campogalliano tourists can appreciate some peculiarities to satisfy particular cultural and naturalistic interests. Among these there is the Museum of Scales and Balances, the Reserve of the Secchia River Expansion Area and the Curiel Lakes.
The Museum of Scales and Balances was born in 1989 from a series of collected instruments on permanent exhibition since 1983. The Museum unique in its kind in Italy-owns more than 9,000 instruments, some of which have been contributed by private citizens and public institutions.

Nonantola

The toponym Nonantola comes from a Latin expression that means "ninety centuries", that is the amount of land that the Longobardian king Astolfo donated in 752 to his brother-in-law Anselm, Duke of Friuli, how left the monastery of Fanano in the Modenese Apennines and founded the Abbey of Nonantola. The distinctive features of this bulding are its Portal with marble jambs and architraves, made by artists of Wiligelmo's school, and its extremely beautifull apses, still original of the times when the Abbey was built. Inside the Abbey, the Archive is preserved, which is one of the most important monastic Archives in Europe, collecting more than 7,000 parchments of the 8th century. Beside the museums and monuments in the historic centre, Nonantola boasts in his surrounding an extremely enjoyable rural landscape, with old artefacts, country houses, oratories and villas, as well as an important green area: the Oasi della Parteciapanza. The Parteciapanza Agraria is the Authority that has accepted the inheritance of the Charts of 1058 preserved in the Archive of the Abbey), in which the Abbot Gottescaico established for all the people of Nonantola the right of usufruct on a portion of the Monastery lands. It is a peculiar method for the management of the territory that continues still today in accordance with extremely ancient traditions.