The festival of the patron saint of the municipality of Sona includes food stands and live music.

The touristic cycling loop of Terre del Custoza is about 65 km long and runs on mixed roads with low traffic, 70% of which are asphalted. The route carries lanes in both directions and allows you to explore the villages of Bussolengo, Sommacampagna, Sona and Valeggio sul Mincio. The trail is also well visible thanks to the signs indicating the cycle route.

The ‘unnamed’ villa of Sona

In Sona, between one monastery and another, there are also villas that have retained the names of their first owners throughout history. On the left-hand side of Via Roma, near the centre, there is an old villa that does not bear the name of any illustrious family, called the ‘unnamed’. The two-storey building is simple in structure, but on the ground floor, there is a beautiful hall of frescoes, used by the municipality for civil weddings. The large room is characterised by the remains of wall paintings depicting landscape scenes and mythological characters, dating from the second half of the 16th century.

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Via Roma, 23, 37060 Sona, VR, Italia

The monument of Austrian officers

The Cippo del Feniletto (stone of Feniletto) is located in San Giorgio in Salici in the village of the same name. The small monument commemorates the names of four Austrian officers and an unknown Italian soldier, who fell in the area during the Third War of Independence in the battle of Pernisa on 24 June 1866.

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Località Fenilon, Sona, VR, Italia

Church of San Rocco in Fornelli

In Fornelli, today known as San Rocco, in the shade of centuries-old trees stands the church of the same name, a small masterpiece of religious architecture in the Sonese area. Located on the road from San Giorgio to Rosolotti, it welcomes us with its now famous erratic boulder, which was rolled in here during the last ice age, and its hackberry tree, a national plant monument in the area, which is between 150 and 200 years old. This centuries-old plant deserves a stop under its large foliage.
The church was built as the patronal oratory of the noble Cavazzocca Mazzanti family, subject to the parish of Palazzolo.

It is said that in 1511 it was built as a sign of gratitude for having escaped the plague by the local inhabitants who used morainic pebbles recovered from the clearing of fields. In 1556 it was equipped with a baptismal font that allowed the locals to avoid the long journey to the Pieve di Santa di Giustina. It was used until 1797, the year of the erection of the parish church of San Giorgio, to which it now belongs.
A chaplain who lived here was maintained by the Cavazzocca family.
The interior is simple but enriched with two Baroque altars. On the walls, there are traces of the old 16th-century frescoes and more recent apsidal decorations.

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Chiesetta di San Rocco, Via San Rocco, San Rocco, VR, Italia

Nature and emotions in Sona

The Tunnel of Love runs between two branches of the River Tione and is characterised by slopes covered with woods on either side and a pleasant microclimate.
Among the plant and animal species that distinguish this habitat are the hazelnut, the elder, the Christian thorn, the oak, the willow, the hedgehog, the marten, the mole, the badger, the fox and a myriad of bird species.

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Sentiero dell'amore, Sona, VR, Italia

The Church of the Martyrs in Sona

The small 15th-century church is dedicated to Saint Quirico and his mother Giulitta, who were both martyred in the year 304 during the persecution ordered by Emperor Diocletian. It is located in Sona, in the direction of the valley that marks the Verona-Peschiera del Garda route.

The Dominicans used it as a lazaret during the plague of 1630, as evidenced by the unusual oval windows on the façade, used to feed the plague victims who were kept isolated from the rest of the population.

The rustic façade has a handcrafted stone portal surmounted by the capital with a faded tempera painting of St Quirinus. Two rectangular windows, slits with gratings and a tiny rosetta window complete the simple but sober architecture of the small complex, which has a small sail-shaped bell tower on the roof.
The interior has a single nave with a rectangular apse and, on the right-hand wall, a door leading to the small sacristy.

On the right wall, there is a fragmentary painting from the 17th-18th century by an unknown artist, while on the left there is a fresco depicting St Peter together with Saints Mary Magdalene, Anthony Abbot, Quirico and John the Baptist. To the left of the presbytery, there is another fresco depicting a female figure in a triple frame from the period of the polyptych.
The fresco with the valuable crucifixion on the back wall rediscovered around the beginning of the 19th century is the most important work in the entire church and has been attributed to the school of Liberale da Verona. Its view is now partially covered by a classical aedicula added in the 18th century, inside which there is a painting of Madonna with the Child and Saints Quirino and Giulitta.

The wooden furniture includes a confessional and a lectern from the 19th century and a kneeler from the 18th century. There are two simple stoups, both made of stone: one on the right wall, the other on the counter-façade.

What finally should be noted, is a fragment of carved stone depicting a lamb in profile and a stylised palm tree, inserted into the wall under the roof. As the fragments in the parish church of Palazzolo, it is probably a fragment of the decorations of the Longobard church of Santa Giustina, which is now within the perimeter of the cemetery of this community.

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Chiesa dei Santi Quirico e Giulitta, Via San Quirico, Sona, VR, Italia

The aristocratic villa for children

A hundred metres from the Town Hall, surrounded by a centuries-old park, stands the 19th-century Villa Trevisani-Calderara, now home to the Cavalier Romani nursery school. This large, noble residence is listed in the Regional Register of Venetian Villas. It can be accessed by an elegant wide flight of stairs.

On a hill near the villa, at the top of a flight of stairs, there is a curious circular tower called the Guglia, which was built at the same time as the villa and allowed the owners to enjoy a wonderful view over the whole area. The original name was “Torre Gabriella”, in memory of a little daughter who died prematurely. It was also used as a military watchtower during the tumultuous Risorgimento days of 1848 when the villa itself was a subject of fighting between the Piedmontese and Austrians.

Today, the voices of playful children resound in its rooms. The park surrounding the villa is enriched with numerous tall trees and, thanks to the nesting boxes placed here and there, attracts various species of birds.
In summer, the Villa is the venue for open-air weddings and musical and theatrical events.

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Parco Cavalier Romani di Villa Trevisani Calderara, Via Roma, Sona, VR, Italia

The Arbor Redemptionis Parish Church

The present parish church was opened for worship on 1 May 1955, although it was still in a rough state. The construction work began in 1948 and continued with commitment for 7 years. Thanks to the donations of the families, the completion works were carried out: the red marble floor from Verona, the plastering, the electrical system, the heating system, the construction of the sacristy, the external plastering and the facade.

The new church was consecrated by Bishop Giuseppe Carraro in 1969.
The Accademia Cignaroli of Verona was involved in the decoration of the two large sidewalls of the transept and commissioned one of its teachers, Federico Bellomi. This sensitive and ingenious artist, using unusual or very rare techniques, worked with dedication and passion for fifteen years to create an imposing fresco, “Arbor Redemptionis”, which constitutes the exceptional artistic testament of this painter and represents the History of Salvation, according to a scheme reminiscent of Michelangelo’s Last Judgement.

The centre of the fresco depicts Christ the Redeemer, encompassing the three moments of his life: the Incarnation, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection; to the side are the most significant episodes in history of salvation.
It is a colossal work (240 square metres of surface area) that represents the culmination of an artistic experience: Bellomi’s Christian humanism, characterised by trust in God and man.

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Chiesa di Lugagnano, Via Don Giuseppe Fracasso, Sona, VR, Italia

The first memorial of the Great War

The war memorial in the parish churchyard of Palazzolo, the first to be erected in the Veneto region and the fourth in Italy after the end of the First World War, was inaugurated on 3 August 1919. The story goes that during the war Don Augusto visited families, wrote to soldiers at the front, and wanted to dedicate an altar in front of the church, on which he could duly lay the tears and grief of the families of the heroes who had died at the front. When the armistice was signed in Padua, at Villa Giusti, on 3 November 1918, the priest set up a committee under the regulations called the “Commission” which he headed. He met the families of the village, collected donations, drew up the project for the monument and suggested a broken column. He ordered the marble from Sant’Ambrogio di Valpolicella and commissioned the artist Ferrari to make the sculpture. He hired bricklayers and labourers who at that time were the invalid soldiers repatriated from the front line or from the Mauthausen prison camps, defined as ‘the cities of the dying’.

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Via Piave, 3, Sona, VR, Italia

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