I Riti della Natività di San Giovanni Battista

The Nativity of San Giovanni Battista is celebrated on 24 June, close to the summer solstice. On the preceding night, flowers and herbs from the estate park are placed in water and left outdoors under the moon and dew. The water is used the next morning in a traditional gesture associated with health. Mass is celebrated in the estate chapel, accompanied by a bottle of Arzimo Recioto di Soave. The observance connects the saint’s symbols of fire and baptismal water with the beginning of grape ripening and the rural saying that, by San Giovanni, the must is already forming within the grape.