Sustinente

Nobody knows for certain where the name comes from, but all the explanations turn around the number seven hundred. It might come from a Roman milestone — the village lies seven Roman miles from Mantua — or from the seven hundred iugera of land that Matilda of Canossa gave to the Benedictines of Polirone, on the other bank of the Po, or again from an artificial sluice that regulated the waters between the Mincio and the Po. The coat of arms, granted in 1926, makes its choice: above is the god Eridanus, that is the Po in person, pouring water from an amphora and dipping an oar in the waves; below a milestone with AD SEPTINGENTA carved in Roman capitals. Water, after all, is this land's trade: as early as the fifth century BC the Etruscans dug here the dikes known as Fosse Filistine, to make the water run and prevent it from stagnating.

In 1288 the Cavriani, a family come from Germany, had a castle built on an island, with thirteen towers and gardens of exotic plants; from the fourteenth century the village belonged to the Gonzaga for three hundred years. The page that counts most, though, is from the twentieth century: during the German occupation the Sacchi, a peasant family, hid for months in their farmhouse a young Jew from Merano, Moshe Shapiro, until the situation became too dangerous and he had to seek shelter at Gazzo Veronese, where he survived until the Liberation. On 2 August 1999 Yad Vashem named Riccardo and Edmea Sacchi and Vando and Ebe Sacchi Righteous Among the Nations.