Comacchio

Comacchio is the most original and fascinating historical centre in the Po Delta. It rose up at the dawn of the Middle Ages on 13 islets, that the steady advance of the outlet of the Po formed in the marshes and it built its urban and economic development exclusively on the water. Fish, fish-farming in the lagoon, working the reed and producing salt were, in fact, the source of its prosperity and its setback, because of the uneven conflict that they raised with Venice.

A few kilometres to the south of Comacchio, extend its extraordinary Lagoons called the "Valli", an area of more than 11.000 hectares of water, rises and salt pans that represents what is left of the immense lagoon that surrounded the town until a hundred years ago. Along the road that leads to the "Valli", we find the remains of the early Christian parish of "Santa Maria in Padovetere" and the town of Spina, a Greek-Etruscan trading centre, that flourished between the VI and III centuries BC, whose splendid finds are kept in the Archaeological National Museum of Ferrara.

From the locality of "Casone Foce" (old fishing houses "Foce") we can go into the interior of the "Valli" of Comacchio, which can be visited following a guided route on foot or in a motor boat, stopping at several fishing houses converted into a museum of lagoon life.
A captivating view of the "Valli" can be admired journeying along the levee "Agosta", a pre-Etruscan duny sandbar that at one time was right against the navigable canal from the Roman Era called the "Fossa Augustea".

Once we reach the course of the Reno, we can continue left along the "Rotta Martinella" road that goes up onto the embankment of the river along the southern edge of the "Valli". From the top there is an enchanting view of the broad lagoon, with the tongue of land belonging to the Boscoforte peninsula, that reaches into it on one side, while on the other side we cannot fail to notice the course of the river and the village of "Sant'Alberto", that can be reached by a picturesque ferry.