Rovereto (the Trentino city of 41,000 inhabitants on the Adige river, 25km south of Trento and 30km north of Verona at 204m altitude, the second city of the Trentino-Alto Adige region after Trento): the city that the Italian cultural tourism map consistently underrates (the specific Rovereto content (the MART, the Campana dei Caduti, and the Marzemino wine) justifies a full day visit from any Trentino or Veneto base and makes it the single most content-rich day trip from Verona that the specific Verona visitor consistently overlooks). Rovereto's specific historical identity: the border city whose geography (the Adige valley narrows at Rovereto into the specific strategic constriction (the Passo di Rovereto) that has made the town the frontier between the Germanic north and the Latin south for 2,000 years (the Roman Rhodolanus, the Lombard Laber, and the Austrian Rofreit are the specific successive names that the town's historical multinational identity produced)) was most violently defined by the First World War (the specific Rovereto WWI history (the Austrian Rovereto (the town was Austrian, the Welschtirol, until 1918, when the Italian victory transferred it to Italy with the rest of the Trentino) and the specific Battle of Rovereto (the 1916 Austrian Strafexpedition (the "punitive expedition") that advanced as far as the Rovereto area before being stopped at the Pasubio mountain to the east)) makes it the most specifically WWI-marked single Trentino city.
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Rovereto: MART, the Bell, and the Wine
The MART
MART. Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto (the modern and contemporary art museum in Corso Bettini 43, Rovereto, the specific building (the Mario Botta design (1999-2002): the Lugano-based architect whose specific cupola (the 40m diameter glass-and-steel dome over the central rotunda) is the single most architecturally distinctive museum building in any Italian city outside Milan and Rome): the MART permanent collection (approximately 17,000 works (paintings, sculptures, photographs, and design objects) with the specific strengths in the Italian Futurism (the most complete single Futurist collection in Italy, the specific Futurist works of Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Giacomo Balla, and Fortunato Depero (the Rovereto-based Futurist designer who lived and worked in Rovereto from 1920 to 1959 and whose specific "Depero Futurista" book (the 1927 bolted-book (the libro bullonato, the book whose two metal bolts replace the conventional spine) is the most celebrated single Italian Futurist design object)) that the MART's specific Archivio del '900 (the 20th-century archive) preserves)): open Tuesday-Sunday 10:00-18:00. Approximately €12 adults. The MART is the most undervisited major Italian art museum by international tourists and the one with the shortest queues at any time of year.
The Campana dei Caduti
La Campana dei Caduti "Maria Dolens" (the Bell of the Fallen, the largest bell in the world dedicated exclusively to the memory of the war dead): the specific bell (cast in bronze from 19 nations' cannon barrels (the specific WWII and WWI cannon metal that the 19 donating nations provided for the specific peace bell casting in 1960, the second casting, the first Maria Dolens was cast in 1924 from WWI cannon metal and cracked in 1939)): the specific bell dimensions (the Maria Dolens weighs 22,639 kg and measures 3.2m in height, the largest single Italian bell and the largest single "peace bell" in the world): the specific daily ringing (the Maria Dolens rings every evening at sunset (the specific sunset time varies from 17:00 in winter to 21:00 in summer). 100 tolls, one for each year of the 20th century's wars: the ringing is audible throughout the Rovereto valley and from the Castel Rovereto (the 14th-century castle above the city, now the Museo Storico Italiano della Guerra, the War Museum) up to 5km in the valley.
Q&A: Rovereto Guide
What is the Marzemino di Rovereto?
The Marzemino (the specific Trentino red grape variety (the Marzemino. Vitis vinifera "Marzemino", the grape that Mozart has Don Giovanni's servant Leporello praise in the opera's Act II dinner scene ("Eccellente Marzimino!", the specific Mozart libretto reference (the Lorenzo Da Ponte libretto for the 1787 Don Giovanni premiere in Prague) that makes the Marzemino the most specifically opera-referenced Italian wine)): the specific Trento DOC Marzemino (the wine produced in the Rovereto zone and the southern Trentino on the specific clay-limestone soils of the Adige valley): the specific Marzemino character (the medium-bodied red with the specific violet-plum fragrance, the low tannin, the crisp acidity, and the specific bitter-almond finish that the Marzemino shares with the other bitter-finish Italian reds of the alpine zone): the Marzemino is the wine for the Rovereto lunch (the specific Trentino cuisine (the strangolapreti (the spinach-bread gnocchi), the canederli (the bread dumplings), and the polenta con funghi (the polenta with porcini)) that the Rovereto restaurant tradition pairs with the local Marzemino at approximately €12-18 per bottle).
