Dante's Valpolicella wine region 'being spoiled by urban sprawl' They say the population of the valley, which produces one of Italy's most celebrated red wines, has doubled in the last 25 years from 35,000 to 70,000, bringing rampant development to what was once a bucolic patchwork of vineyards, woods and hilltop villages boasting Romanesque churches. His son Pietro settled in the valley and in 1353 bought a farmhouse near the village of Sant'Ambrogio. Dante, whose Divine Comedy is acclaimed as one of the greatest works of world literature, may himself have known the valley. The estate has been run ever since by more than 20 generations of the Alighieri family. One of the biggest blots on the landscape is a giant cement factory that was built in the 1960s. Now there are plans to construct a plant for producing energy from organic waste. Development of this sort could be justified in the 1950s and 60s, when Italy's economic situation was critical following the war, but not anymore. Mistakes were made in the past and they are still being made. We want to ensure that mistakes are not made in the future," Count Alighieri said. The campaigners, who include academics from the universities of Venice, Verona and Padua, environmental groups such as WWF and Italia Nostra (Our Italy) and the Valpolicella wine producers' association, want to see the creation a new authority that will oversee the six councils that administer the valley. "New houses are being scattered like seeds, there are industrial estates and shopping centres, areas that serve as dormitory suburbs for Verona, factories, a cement plant with a 103 metre (310ft) high chimney and a toxic rubbish dump," said the Italian chapter of WWF. It was not too late to save the area by halting development, the environmental group said. The valley remains beautiful and deserves conservation. But something needs to be done urgently.