The history

How it began

The festival was born in 2001 from a proposal by councillor Maurizio Fugatti, who saw that Trentino lacked an event of this kind: he entrusted the task of carrying the idea forward to Walter Pericolosi, already thirty years a volunteer. The impulse thus came from the Municipality of Avio, which allocated the budget for an event tied to the opening of the square at Sabbionara di Avio — the place where Uva e Dintorni began.

The name of the festival was inspired by the wine festival once held in Rovereto. It all started with Enrico Salvetti’s team, who in 2000 won the barrel race in the city of the oak: the prize was the chance to host a weekend of their choosing in their own town, with the aim of staging a festival like the grape festival held in Rovereto.

The following year, in 2001, the cancellation of all events in Rovereto after the fall of the Twin Towers marked the line between the end of the festival in Rovereto and the birth of a new one, staged entirely in Avio. It was a success from the very first day, with its first hundred volunteers.

The Wine Towns

Success came at once, thanks to an organisation built to bring together quality food and wine with enjoyment. By the second year guests from other wine towns began to take part, such as the team from Buttrio in the province of Udine, and then others from Tuscany, Piedmont and Abruzzo, until in 2010 fifteen wine towns from across Italy were taking part.

Every town arrives in Avio with its own emblem and can set up stalls, in a courtyard reserved for the guest towns, displaying its local produce and characteristic wines. It is an important moment of meeting and of exchange, of goods and of ideas — to say nothing of the hospitality offered to each guest team, with its five members accompanied by a local representative.

A festival that moves

Uva e Dintorni moves around: one year it is held in the village of Sabbionara, the next in Avio, where there are three different routes. To see them all takes a visitor six years — and that is precisely what makes it appealing, because every year there is something new: new routes, new courtyards, new views.

Visitors see how what they eat in the courtyards is made, and so the poetry hidden behind the kitchen is revealed: the Sabbionara dairy is the clearest example, letting you watch cheese being made and then taste it.

Alongside the playful side — shows, medieval markets, old and half-forgotten games such as the barrel palio or the traditional barefoot treading of grapes — there is always the cultural side: visits to the vineyards, the castle and the San Leonardo estate, with its farming museum.

It is history and tradition that are given their due. In this event, not by chance, wine is paired with its historical setting, with love for one’s own land, with one’s own passions and with the culture this place has been able to give.