Mark Lipton wrote:

> "The name Valpolicella dates back to this time; it was probably given
> to the valley by administrative officials of Verona, which took
> control of the valley once more in the twelfth century, along the
> river Adige as far as Pol (Santa Lucia di Pescantina), with tax
> collection and the administration of justice in Ospedaletto and
> subsequently San Pietro: then Valpolesela, valle di Pol. "
>
> source:
>
> http://www.valpolicella.it/eng/lev3....%20e%20cultura

So this is a third option, where Valpolicella comes from "valley of Pol".
Then there's the version with this name coming from "Polesine" (island on
the Po who attached to a bank) and the one about the "polis cellae".
Probably there's some other version out there.

> Since this is an English translation of an Italian website, it would
> be interesting to know how faithfully rendered this translation is.
> Any takers?

LOL; totally different from the origin. The section "Etimologia" says:
"...l'attuale nome di Valpolicella che altro non sembra indicare se non la
grande ansa formata dalla curva dell'Adige nel suo scorrere della Chiusa a
Parona (come del resto abbiamo per Polesella e Polesine in provincia di
Rovigo)."
Which, translated, is:
"...the current name of Valpolicella, which seems to indicate the big bend
in the Adige river while running from Chiusa to Parona (as we see for
Polesella and Polesine in Rovigo county)".
So, in english the name Valpolicella comes from Polesel (Val de Pol, where
Pol is a town), but in italian the origin is the name of the bend in the
river.
This site explains very well that there's much confusion on the origins of
the name Valpolicella
--
Vilco
Think pink, drink rose'