The Roman villa of Negrar: a glass of wine among the mosaics - Benedetti la Villa

The fact that archaeology and wine share a tight bond is already well known by anyone who have spent at least few hours on an excavation site. Set aside picks and shovels, at the end of the working day can’t really miss a great glass of wine.

A story like no other

But the story that we want to tell you today is a different one, that can be almost unique if compared to the scenario of the Italian archaeological campaigns. We are talking about a small fraction of Negrar, one of the villages in the Valpolicella Classica region, where not only one but even two wineries, have made available part of their property to allocate it for the archaeological research.  

The presence of a Roman Villa of the fourth century AD was already known in the nineteenth century. Indeed three surveys over the years (1886, 1922, 1975) have been conducted, but eventually the remains have always been covered for lack of funds. 

But in 2019, thanks to the Benedetti La Villa winery’s financing, it has been possible to proceed with a more extended excavation. This brought to light the entire structure of the Roman Villa. It consists of different areas: a residential one, richly decorated with floor polychrome, geometric and figured mosaics and with frescoes on the walls, a large colonnaded courtyard, with a thermal area on one side and with a working environment on the other side.

What attracted more our attention is a room developed on two floors: the superior one was probably meant for the crushing of grapes, and the lower one for the collection of the must. After all, the wine vocation here was known since ancient time.

And Pagus Wine Tours?

Pagus Wine Tours is very keen on this project as it represents a great opportunity to promote our fantastic territory. As proof of this, we will present to you the new dedicated tour that we organized for all our clients. We explain what this is about:  the access to a still in progress archaeological site is usually denied by the Italian norm.

Benedetti La Villa winery financing part of the excavations and making a deal with the Superintendence, has instead free access to the site. Thus, the exclusiveness of this, lies in its free access. Pagus Wine Tours thanks to the collaboration with this winery, has the same free access to the Roman Villa for all our clients that take part in the dedicated tour. The tour includes the visit in the archaeological site and the following degustation of the Benedetti La Villa’s wines.

…always working for you!

To give you an idea to what this tour is all about, we are organizing an event where we will host Simone, the owner of the winery, who will present you the winery and the archaeological site, and then we will taste together the wines of the “Mosaici” brand, dedicated to the roman mosaics in the villa. But the surprise continues the day after, when Pagus and the Bendetti La Villa winery will bring you to visit the Roman Villa, to lead you to discover our history and our territory.

Don’t miss this special occasion!

…see you soon!