Flavors and Culture: this is Franciacorta.

 Franciacorta occupies a small area of morainic hills, between Brescia and the southern extremity of Lake Iseo. It is covered by vineyards, with beautiful restored farmhouses and elegant mansions, castles and Cluniac foundation monasteries.

Famous for the beauty of the landscape, especially well known for the production of "D.O.C.G. Franciacorta wine, simply called Franciacorta."

Like Cava and Champagne, Franciacorta achieves its elegant effervescence thanks to secondary fermentation in the bottle, the “classic method”. You can visit wineries in the area and have wine tastings.

It is also possible to approach history and art.

The Benedictine Abbey of Rodengo Saiano (one of the most important in Italy) has to be mentioned, considering its important local role, going back to the past.

During the Roman period, there was, in the same place, a "castrum", a fixed military camp.

In 1066 the French Benedictine monks from Cluny settled here. This order had already a seat in Pontida (Bergamo) and controlled abbeys, convents, courts, mills, thousands of hectares of land in at least thirty municipalities in the province, with possessions up to the Island of St. Paul in Lake Iseo and S. Salvatore in Capo di Ponte.

The history of the region has been marked, by these monks, for over 700 years.

All the greatest Brescian artists (Foppa, Romanino, Gambara,) decorated and embellished the Abbey of Rodengo.

The Church of San Pietro in Lamosa is located in a panoramic position overlooking the peat bogs, also called "lame" (Latin word meaning “small lakes”), and this explains the name "in Lamosa".

Two Lombard origin brothers, Ambrogio and Oprando, in December 1083, decided to donate a small church with all the assets, to the Benedictine Monastery of Cluny, for their souls’ repose.

Twelve years later, the monastery had already been built, and in 1147 it became a Cluniac Priory. The original church had already been enlarged. New expansions were made in the 13th century and in the 16th century.

Today the church consists of the central nave, the side aisle with four chapels and the bell tower. The cloister opens to the south of the church.

Inside, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles are present.

The pillars and walls are partially covered with frescoes in good condition.

Over the years the complex has suffered serious damage, but in 1983 the ancient church was donated to the parish one.

The association "Amici del Monastero" (Friends of Monastery) is engaged to restore it and works to enhance the National Monument.

Documenting the presence between 900 and 950, the Castle of Passirano, still stands alone on the road leading to Bornato.

The territory has been controlled by Brescian Monasteries and Noble families and, like many others Franciacorta villages, it participated to the bloody struggles of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Surrounded by moraine hills of Lake Iseo and vineyards of Franciacorta, majestic Palazzo Torri stands as a splendid seventeenth century fortified noble mansion. Built by Federici della Corte family, on the site of an older 16th century military garrison, renovated in the eighteenth century by Peroni family from Brescia, with baroque furnishings and decorations to be a "mansion of pleasures", it has finally been enriched and enlarged by Torri Family, at the end of the nineteenth century.

Paolina Calegari Torri and her husband Alessandro turned it into a real "literary salon", attended by famous guests, where parties, meetings and debates took place. Writers and poets like Giosuè Carducci, Antonio Fogazzaro and Giovanni Pascoli took place.

Also Castle of Bornato, housing inside a Renaissance Villa, deserves a visit.

The core of the castle dates back to the 13th century, but over time the stronghold has been expanded and strengthened. There are walls with battlements and towers, also ditches but there is no longer the drawbridge.

During the nineteenth century, the residence has been transformed into a “literary salon”.  
Present property is Orlando family  Open to the public for a few years, beautiful rooms richly decorated can be admired.