“It is an attractive and extremely fertile hill that rises almost in the middle of Cisapline Gaul, which, on the sides exposed to the north and south, is near San Colombano, a well-known castle enclosed by strong walls. I know of no other place of so little elevation that has around it such a vast prospect of noble countryside.”

       That description, contained in the letters of poet Francesco Petrarca, provides perhaps the best literary glimpse of the area, which is only slightly more than 40 kilometers from Milan. It is there that the wine of the same name, whose quality was known and safeguarded 600 years ago, is produced. 
       In the Statutes of San Colombano, which were promulgated on August 1, 1374, by Bianca di Savoia, the mother of Galeazzo Visconti, provisions were made for the oversight of winemaking in the area that can be regarded as the precursors of modern legislation. 
       The wine has long enjoyed a fine reputation. Three centuries after Bianca’s statutes, poet Francesco Redi, in his Dithyramb, sang the praises of San Colombano in company with more celebrated and better-known Italian wines. 

Map of the production area

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