Dozza and its painted walls
The village of murals and the regional wine shop
On a hill between Imola and Bologna, overlooking the vineyards of the Via Emilia, Dozza is a small medieval village, one of the "Borghi più belli d'Italia", that has become an open-air art gallery. Since 1960, the village has hosted the Biennale del Muro Dipinto, the Painted Wall Biennial: every two years, in September, artists from Italy and abroad are invited to paint the walls of the houses, and over the decades the façades, alleys and squares of the village have been covered with over a hundred murals, of every style, from figurative to abstract, which make a walk through Dozza a continuous surprise. The older works are restored or replaced with new ones, so the village is always changing.
At the top of the village stands the Rocca Sforzesca, a fortress transformed into a noble residence by the Sforza and then the Malvezzi Campeggi family, which can be visited with its furnished rooms, kitchens, prisons and torture chamber. In its cellars there is the Enoteca Regionale Emilia-Romagna, the regional wine shop, with a selection of hundreds of wines from all over the region, from Lambrusco to Sangiovese di Romagna, Albana and Pignoletto, which can be tasted and bought. The surrounding hills, covered with vineyards and badlands, are crossed by walking and cycling paths.
Tip: visit in September of an odd year to see the artists at work during the Biennale; combine Dozza with Imola and its racetrack.
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