The Baia Del Sole winery, located near the archaeological ruins of the ancient Luni di Ortonovo, derives its prestige from the lands where the native Vermentino has its most probable origin.
Since ancient times, even under the control of the Ligurians, the port of Luni was used as a mooring for merchant ships both by the Etruscans and by the Greeks.
To the latter, the first consecration of the port to the goddess Selene is ascribed. Luni, which gave its name to Lunigiana, was an ancient Roman city that is currently located on the border between Liguria and Tuscany, in the town of Ortonovo. Today only ruins remain of what was once a powerful maritime city.
Founded by the Romans in 177 BC, to establish an outpost against the Apuan Ligurians in their war of conquest of the Italian peninsula, Luni became famous for its harbor, from which shiploads full of marble of the Apuan Alps, Apennine forests’ timber, cheese and local wines, praised by Martial and Pliny, left.
In the Augustan age, Luni knew a further period of splendor, and subsequently in the Julius–Claudian period, thanks to the nearby marble, turned into monumental city. In the fifth century it was chosen as the seat of a bishop, a sign of the importance of the city, which in 272 gave even a Pope: Eutychian.
