On the route that once led from Milan to Brescia, by the third boundary stone, there was a small shop serving wayfarers providing them food, wine and fabrics.
That boundary stone was later adorned with sacred images such as the one of the Virgin of Pilastrello, protector of wayfarers who did not fail to stop, also for this reason.
In 1346 chronicles describe “a riparian tavern, at the bridge “Opii on Lambretto”, the so called Opium tavern, name that derives from the Acer Opulos or Loppo (Acer opulifolium) an Italian maple, widely spread in the area.
Three hundred years later, during the Spanish domination, the owners were granted the license to sell bread and other foodstuffs along with fermented products, becoming in this way a little food shop ready to welcome foreigners and passers-by. In the back of the shop, in a more discreet and protected position, there was the farmstead with the household goods.
In the years around 1848, the Austrian Marshal Josef Radetzky became a regular client of the “Hosteria del Oppio”, which was located near the armory. During the day Radeztky and his ranks met at the inn to drink and eat while during the night around the same tables, young men met. They were armed with muskets and wore tricolor cockades, they were the same men who took part in the Five Days of Milan, the rebellion against the Austrian domination by Marshal Radetzky, during the First Italian War of Independence.
More than a century has passed since those years and today “La Sidreria” with its tradition of historic inn proposes again a drink once widespread throughout Northern Italy: cider.
