Wine area
The Valpolicella Classico Villages: San Pietro in Cariano, Negrar, Fumane, Marano and Sant'Ambrogio
Valpolicella Classica
The Valpolicella Classico is the wine area made up of five comuni north-west of Verona: San Pietro in Cariano, Negrar, Fumane, Marano and Sant'Ambrogio. Only grapes from these five may carry the Classico name on Amarone, Ripasso, Recioto and Valpolicella labels. They lie about 15 to 20 km from the city, and each has Romanesque churches, villas and sites you can visit alongside its wineries.
This page takes the five in turn, with what the wine road association and the official tourism portal list in each, the opening times they publish, and how to reach each village by bus. San Pietro in Cariano and Sant'Ambrogio are on the daily ATV line 103; Negrar, Fumane and Marano have weekday buses only. For the train, bus and taxi options in detail see getting to Valpolicella from Verona, and to book winery visits see our guide to Valpolicella wine tours.
What makes these five villages Classico
The disciplinari of all four Valpolicella wines reserve the Classico mention for grapes from the comuni of Negrar, Marano, Fumane, Sant'Ambrogio and San Pietro in Cariano, and require the drying and winemaking for Classico wines to happen inside the same zone. The producers' consortium describes the Classica zone as five geographical areas: the areas of Sant'Ambrogio and San Pietro in Cariano and the valleys of Fumane, Marano and Negrar. It notes that Lake Garda tempers the continental climate of northern Italy here.
The wider production area takes in 19 comuni in all, so a winery in Verona, the Valpantena or the eastern valleys can make Amarone too, without the Classico name. For a visitor, the Classico villages are simply the nearest wine country to the city and the best served by public transport.
The Strada del Vino Valpolicella, the wine road association, has its office in Via Ingelheim in San Pietro in Cariano. It publishes nine numbered itineraries; numbers 2, 3 and 4 cover Sant'Ambrogio, then Fumane, San Pietro in Cariano and Marano, then Negrar, and work by car, bicycle or on foot.
San Pietro in Cariano: San Floriano and the villas
San Pietro in Cariano lies about 15 km from Verona and includes the frazioni of Bure, Castelrotto, Corrubbio di Negarine, Pedemonte and San Floriano. The wine road association notes Roman remains of farmhouses found at San Floriano, Castelrotto and Quar, and the earliest evidence of vine growing in the area from the Roman period.
The Pieve di San Floriano is first named in a document of 905, although the present church dates from the twelfth century. The association calls it the finest Romanesque building in Valpolicella: three naves, a facade in regular blocks of tufa and a square bell tower on the north side. Nearby, Villa Ottolini Lebrecht, a sixteenth-century villa with a large park, houses the University of Verona's oenology courses, according to the tourism portal.
The comune also holds Villa Santa Sofia at Pedemonte, linked to a design by Andrea Palladio for Marcantonio Serego, which the Santa Sofia winery dates to 1565 (the wine road association has building begin between 1561 and 1564 and end around 1590), and Villa Giona, dated to around 1504 from a stone found in its park. San Pietro in Cariano and San Floriano are on ATV lines 101, 103, 105 and 107, and line 103 runs on Sundays too.
Sant'Ambrogio: San Giorgio, Gargagnago and the marble
Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella sits where the Valpolicella meets the Adige valley and includes Domegliara, Gargagnago, Monte, Ponton and San Giorgio di Valpolicella. The wine road association describes it as a centre for wine and for marble, including the red stone known as Rosso Verona, and records the belief that much of the stone for the Arena of Verona came from Cavarena di Sotto at Gargagnago.
San Giorgio di Valpolicella, also called Ingannapoltron, is a hilltop borgo that joined the club of I Borghi più belli d'Italia in November 2015. Its Pieve has three naves, a bell tower and cloister from the twelfth century, and nearby is a small archaeological museum. From the belvedere the tourism portal describes a view across to Verona and Lake Garda.
Gargagnago is home to Villa Serego Alighieri: Pietro, son of Dante, bought the first property here, Casal dei Ronchi, in 1353, and his descendants still own the estate, which has 120 hectares of vineyard. Visits to the villa are by booking only. A 2.5 km path, the Quattro fontane, links four stone fountains through the village. Domegliara has the railway station, 15 minutes from Verona, and line 103 stops at Sant'Ambrogio and Gargagnago.
Negrar: Villa Mosconi Bertani and the Pojega garden
Negrar lies about 15 km from Verona, in the eastern part of the Classica, and includes Arbizzano, Fane, Mazzano, Montecchio, Prun, San Peretto, San Vito, Santa Maria and Torne among its frazioni. The wine road association records prehistoric hill settlements across the comune.
Villa Mosconi Bertani, at Novare, was built in the first half of the eighteenth century beside an older cellar; its central hall rises through the full height of the house and is covered in allegorical frescoes, and a romantic park with a lake lies behind it. It is the seat of a wine estate. The Giardino di Pojega at Villa Rizzardi, laid out between 1783 and 1796, has a green theatre, a nymphaeum, citrus houses and a secret garden; the garden's own site gave its 2026 season as 28 March to 8 November, 10.00 to 18.00, with last entry at 17.00, while the tourism portal still lists 1 April to 2 November, so check the garden's site for the next season.
The church of San Marco al Pozzo keeps frescoes from the twelfth to the fifteenth century and opens by booking with the comune. At Prun, the open-air and underground quarries of Prun stone were worked until about the 1950s. Negrar is on ATV line 104, which runs on weekdays only.
Fumane: Villa Della Torre, the cave and the waterfalls
Fumane lies about 20 km from Verona in the westernmost of the Lessini valleys, called the valle dei Progni for its streams, with the frazioni of Breonio, Cavalo, Gorgusello, Manune, Mazzurega and Molina.
Villa Della Torre dates from the middle of the sixteenth century and is built around a central courtyard on stepped levels. The wine road association notes the hypothesis that it is the work of Michele Sanmicheli and Giulio Romano, with fireplaces attributed to the stuccoist Bartolomeo Ridolfi. On the hill above the village stands the sanctuary of the Madonna de La Salette, built in the 1860s as a vow when a disease was destroying the vines; its interior is usually open every day from about 8.00 to 18.00, according to the tourism portal.
Along the old road to Molina is the Grotta di Fumane, a prehistoric site used by Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, with fragments of red painting; it can be visited by booking. At Molina, the Parco delle Cascate covers about 80,000 m² of waterfalls, pools and caves by the park's own figure (the wine road association gives about 150 hectares) and opened in July 1973; the free Valpolicella Card gives 12% off its full ticket. Fumane is on ATV line 105, on weekdays only.
Marano: Monte Castelon, the Minerva temple and Valverde
Marano di Valpolicella lies about 18 km from Verona and includes Mondrago, Pezza, Prognol, Purano, San Rocco and Valgatara. Its terraced valley grows fruit and vines, with woods on the higher ground.
Monte Castelon, between the valleys of Marano and Fumane, is one of the main archaeological areas of Valpolicella. On its slope, a pagan temple of the first century AD, known as the Tempio di Minerva, was rediscovered in 2007 after a nineteenth-century find had been lost. The tourism portal gives free entry without booking on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 15.00 to 19.00 between April and September and from 14.00 to 18.00 in October, with a guided visit on Saturdays by booking; visitors are asked for a voluntary donation.
Near San Rocco, the sanctuary of Santa Maria Valverde stands at almost 600 m on Monte Castelon, in a building of 1682 on a twelfth-century foundation, with a view over the Marano valley towards Monte Baldo and Lake Garda. At Mondrago a 52-metre suspension bridge links Valpolicella with the Lessinia, and at Valgatara stands Villa Guantieri, a fifteenth-century villa with portico and loggia. Marano is served by ATV line 107, which has only a few weekday runs.
Frequently asked questions
5 questionsWhich villages are in the Valpolicella Classico?
San Pietro in Cariano, Negrar, Fumane, Marano di Valpolicella and Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella. The disciplinari reserve the Classico name for grapes from these five comuni.
Which Valpolicella village is easiest to reach from Verona?
Sant'Ambrogio, through Domegliara station, 15 minutes by regional train from Verona Porta Nuova, and San Pietro in Cariano, on ATV bus line 103, which also runs on Sundays.
Is San Giorgio di Valpolicella worth a visit?
It is a hilltop borgo in the comune of Sant'Ambrogio, listed among I Borghi più belli d'Italia since November 2015, with a Pieve, a twelfth-century cloister, a small archaeological museum and a belvedere over Verona and Lake Garda.
When is the Tempio di Minerva open?
According to the tourism portal, on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 15.00 to 19.00 between April and September and from 14.00 to 18.00 in October, without booking, with a guided visit on Saturdays by booking.
Can you visit Villa Serego Alighieri?
Yes, by booking only. The estate at Gargagnago has belonged to Dante's descendants since his son Pietro bought it in 1353, and visits can be arranged in English, French and German on request.
Related guides
3 guides- Wine tourValpolicella Wine Tours from Verona: How Tastings Work and How to BookHow Valpolicella winery visits work from Verona: guided tours or direct bookings, weekend open cellars, the wine road packages and when to see Amarone drying.
- TransportGetting to Valpolicella from Verona: Train, ATV Buses and TaxiVerona to Valpolicella: 15-minute train to Domegliara for 3.10 EUR, ATV bus 103 to San Pietro in Cariano, Sunday buses, day passes and the taxi tariff.
- Where to stayWhere to Stay for Valpolicella: Verona or the Wine Villages?Verona or the Valpolicella villages as a base: train and bus times, Sunday service, last buses back, taxis and bike delivery, from official timetables.