Soiano del Lago

On the arms of Soiano there is a wine vat, which in dialect is called a «soi»: they are canting arms, and they say what the village has always done. The name, in fact, most probably comes from the Latin Solianum, a Roman farming estate; but a popular reading prefers Solis Ianua, the gate of the sun, because of the hill from which the village looks out over Garda.

Before the vines there was fear: after repeated Hungarian raids a castello di ricetto was built here, a refuge castle that became the defensive centre of the village, and one of its towers is today the bell tower of the church of San Michele Arcangelo, recorded from 1454. Then, from the fifteenth century, came Venice, which encouraged the growing of vines and olives: since then the Valtenesi has made wine and oil, with the Casaliva olive and the wines of the Riviera del Garda Classico. And still today, in a village of second homes and tourism, one inhabitant in five works the land.