Contesa winery and Pinna Vestinorum!

9:00 am - Meeting the guide in Penne - Porta San Francesco

Introduction to the town of Penne, one of the  Borghi più Belli d'Italia. Visit to the Polo Sacro, its Duomo and the Cripta. Visit to the Museo Archeologico and to its Leopardi Collection  divided into 10 rooms, one of which shows the reconstruction of the warrior's tomb found in the Nocciano's necropolis. This visit will fully explain the history of the Vestina area of which Penne was historically the capital.

The Museo Leopardi is in connection with the Museo Naturalistico “De Leone”. The entrance fee of € 3.50 (reduced price at € 2.00 for under 18s and over 65 years, schools, groups) allow the visit to both the museums.

Walking in the City Old Center you will admire charming views, Noble palaces and  really valuable Basilicas. Arriving in the main square (Piazza), the political and economic center of Penne, called the Piazza Fontana (recently renewed), you will admire: the Fountain, the Cathedral Church with Cloister dedicated to San Domenico, currently home of the Town Hall, and passing the arch the adjacent Piazzetta dei Leoni (Lions square) with its suggestive Belvedere.

Walking toward the Porta San Francesco you will admire the SS. Annunziata Church, the arcades, the San Giovanni Battista dell'Ordine dei Cavalieri di Malta Church dating back  1700, and, among the valuable Noble Palaces, Palazzo Castiglione.

12.15a.m. Greetings. On request and free of charge I'll be glad to accompany you to the Penne Lake Reserve where you'll be able to visit the Museo Naturalistico "De Leone".

In the Reserve you can have lunch in picnic areas, restaurant, agritourism. Booking is request, but on request I can arrange it for you.

3.30p.m. Meet the guide at the Contesa Winery  to visit the vineyards, the cellar and have a wine tasting.

Among the gentle hills of the Vestina area seats the town of Collecorvino, which long before the Roman empire based its economy on agricolture, mainly on vine growing and olives cultivation.

Contesa farm has its roots grounded in the history of this land, where it inherited a great wine making tradition.

The company was founded in 2000 by the tenacity of Rocco Pasetti winemaker and head of the family, which has made of youth and tenacity  the very strength of the company.

The history of the farm date back in  1903 when two great landlords of the countryside round Miglianico, a little village in the ancient Kingdom Of Italy, dissipated a large part of their vineyards for a strange matter of oaks, hogs and vineyards…

Rocco's grandfather Antonio Caramanico, also known as "Zi Antonije of Cocciaroscie", was a skillful wine-grower and a great winemaker. He was owner of a vineyard situated at the grounds' border of Antonio Perrucci, nicknamed "Ciucculone."

Just across the border, within the property of "Ciucculone's" there was a secular oak so wide that the arms of five men were necessary to surround its trunk; its powerful branches and its thick leafage got over the grounds of "Zi Antonje" and they covered with a shade a part of his own vineyards.

Rocco's great-grandfather had his grapes damaged by both the roots in the ground and the shadows cast by the great oak's branches. Therefore he thought about bringing his pig to eat the acorns that fell plentifully from the plant on his ground.

The initiative didn't please "Ciucculone", who'd rather go to the Court of Ortona since he wanted to force my great-grandfather to pay a share for the acorns eaten by the "hog". A QUARREL (in italian Contesa) was born between the two in order to defend their own fields, acorns and grape.

So many were the pigs of "Zi Antonije" that fattened up under the oak, but they were also so many the pieces of the vineyard that the two men lost to sustain the legal expenses…

Today Rocco has the same passion for the land and the vineyards which induced "Zi Antonije" to deprive himself of part of his properties to defend the quality of his grapes and wines.

He also has been the player in a QUARRELL, the conclusion of which has given birth to its new company, originated from the split of his father's old winery.