The small town of Dobbia (the Upper Slavic toponym probably means “oak wood”) began to appear in documents in the sixteenth century despite having very ancient roots. Once owned by the de Tommasi nobles, then the Colloredo and Susanna families, the village was surrounded by a wall, so much so that in the local parlance it was once said, and is still said, that you go or you stay “in” Dobbia. The farmhouses, some of which can still be recognised, tell of the fatigue of working in the fields that has marked these lands for centuries.
In the centre of the village is the small seventeenth-century church dedicated to San Carlo Borromeo, which was badly damaged during the First World War and then restored and still bears the coat of arms of the Susanna Counts. The wines produced here are renowned: in 1862 the picolit produced between Dobbia and Staranzano was awarded at the international exhibition in London.