Sommacampagna

On the hills of Custoza, a hamlet of Sommacampagna, battle was joined twice: in 1848, during the first war of independence, and in 1866, during the third. The two crossed swords on the town's arms recall precisely those battles, and up on the hills stand the ossuary and the so-called House of the Sardinian Drummer Boy. That drummer, though, is a figure whose real identity is unknown, and it is not even known whether he ever existed: Edmondo De Amicis told his story in Cuore, and since then he has become real enough to have a house.

The town, meanwhile, has moved. Historically it sat on top of the moraine hills, around the pieve of Sant'Andrea; with the industrial growth of the post-war years and the arrival of workers in the sixties and seventies it slid down towards the plain to the east, where the industrial estate and the motorway junction are, and there the most populous quarters grew up. Only in recent years has an effort been made to bring the weight back to the old centre. On those same hills the Bianco di Custoza wine is made; and every year, in the first week of January, a vegetable is celebrated, the broccoletto di Custoza.