“In the 1920s, Mussolini remapped Italy, so parts of ancient Tuscany are now part of Romagna,” says Marco Cerise, director of Pandolfa and Noelia Ricci wineries in Predappio, Romagna – Mussolini’s hometown, which lies about an hour northwest of Rimini, a city on the Adriatic Coast.
The nefarious dictator wanted the confines of his Romagnolo hometown to lie as far away as possible from those uncouth Tuscans. Incidentally, the territories aren’t as disparate as Mussolini had hoped as they share a significant oenological tie: the Sangiovese grape.