To take in the pastoral beauty of the valley in one splendid sweep, a fine first stop is Viansa, the hilltop villa owned by members of the Sebastiani family. Viansa also lets one get a first taste of Sonoma, literally, with samplings of wines, olive oils, various pestos and pizzas made in an outside oven.
Photography Maren Caruso
2/7
The best way to see Sonoma is to start at what Italians call the centro storico, the historic centre, and work outward. When approaching Sonoma on Broadway, a wide, graceful avenue ends at the town square.
Photography Maren Caruso
3/7
The town began to take its present shape in 1823 with the founding of the Mission San Francisco Solano. The whitewashed adobe mission church was the northernmost of the missions built on El Camino Real, the “Royal Road” that ran like a Spanish spine through California.
Photography Maren Caruso
4/7
Sonoma is a town that still has plenty of character. The Sebastiani Theatre, a miniature movie palace built in 1933 by August Sebastiani of the wine family, retains its original look. The theatre is the epicentre for Sonoma’s film festival each April.
Photography Maren Caruso
5/7
At the north end of the square is the Sonoma Cheese Factory, in a ’50s modern building. The cheeses are many and excellent, especially the county’s own Sonoma Jack. It doesn’t take long to put together a fine picnic for the plaza.
Photography Maren Caruso
6/7
If you prefer to dine at a restaurant, you can choose among several establishments on or just off the square, including Cafe La Haye on East Napa Street and The Girl & the Fig on West Spain. Both offer classic California cooking with local ingredients.
Photography Maren Caruso
7/7
The glory of the Sonoma Valley is its variety. In Sonoma, the vineyards share the land with pastures where cattle, horses, sheep, goats contentedly graze, and with small family farms where olives flash silver in the breeze and the world’s greatest heirloom tomatoes ripen in the hot sun during six cloudless months.
Photography Maren Caruso
The town of Sonoma, north of San Francisco, was founded by the Spanish and then became part of the newly independent Mexico. Yet today the town, and the valley that surrounds it, feel so much like Tuscany that if the area were a tiny, independent country (think Andorra) it might be called Calitalia. As you turn onto Highway 121 and enter the valley and its broad vista of rolling hills, vineyards and grasslands, you could easily find yourself exclaiming “Che bella!”
