10 reasons to visit Comacchio
Its monuments
Comacchio is the most characteristic and fascinating historic town in the Park of the Po Delta and is often compared with the city of Venice. Heir to ancient Spina, it has extremely old origins and is still a lagoon city which enchants thanks to its historical centre, which still maintains its original look, and to its most famous monuments, such as the Trepponti bridge, with its majestic staircases, the seventeenth century Cathedral of San Cassiano, the elegant Bellini Palace and the distinctive Manifattura dei Marinati, the ancient factory where eels were cooked and marinated.
The extensive canal network
Comacchio was built in order to financially exploit the river’s advantages and now has an extensive maze of canals, with small bridges connecting the various corners of the town and pastel-coloured terraced houses which characterise the inner districts. A tour on the traditional batane, the small flat-keeled boats which were the usual means of transport for the inhabitants until a few decades ago, shouldn’t be missed.
The Park of the Po Delta
The Park of the Po Delta belongs to the UNESCO World Heritage list and consists of a vast and varied territory where water and land are harmoniously and beautifully balanced, generating a unique and unrepeatable landscape: a grand green area framed by centuries-old woods, pine forests and oases, the ideal habitat for thousands of bird, fish and animal species, which allows visitors to discover enchanted and uncontaminated sites, and mysterious and irresistible paths and itineraries.
The 7 Lidos of Comacchio
23 km of fine golden sand and a tranquil and shallow sea ensure that the seven Lidos of Comacchio are the ideal destination for family holidays: quiet and safe waters which have been receiving the FEE Blue Flag for years, spacious beaches for playing, seaside resorts with entertainment, shows and baby clubs for the youngest, with a world of nature to be discovered just a few metres away from the beaches
A motorboat excursion
Let yourselves be transported by a fascinating motorboat excursion; guided tours which will lead you through the striking Valleys of Comacchio to discover old fishing lodges which have been restored to their bygone glory, or to the Po Delta to reach its most hidden pockets. You will discover a unique landscapecapable of arousing intense emotions, with the possibility of also combining cycling tours, birdwatching and pleasure fishing, or of reaching Venezia and Ravenna.
A bike ride through the Valleys
A breath-taking itinerary through the charming landscape of the valleys with fishing lodges and evocative suggestions of a bygone atmosphere. From the busy lido beaches to the peaceful spaces of the Valleys, through the Salina, a refuge for lively waterbirdcolonies, including the wonderful pink flamingo, up to the historic centre of Comacchio with its impressive canals and monuments
The new "Ancient Delta Museum"
The new Ancient Delta Museum illustrates the centuries-long evolution of the area and of the human settlements typical of the ancient Po Delta. This is a unique and sensational museum, which also displays the impressive cargo of a commercial vessel from the Augustan period, found a few kilometres from Comacchio in 1981. The vessel transported bulk commercial cargo and was shipwrecked towards the end of the first century AD; subsequently silted over, its contents have been found practically intact: from the vessel’s steering and maintenance instruments to daily use objects in addition to its actual cargo consisting of an immense heritage of ingots, amphorae ceramics and unguentaria.
The Remo Brindisi museum
Immediately born as maestro Remo Brindisi’s house and museum in the green of the pine forest of Lido di Spina, it represents an extraordinary example of arts integration - architecture, sculpture, painting and design - and of blending art and life. The collection consists of around two thousand pieces, where masterpieces by Giacomo Balla, Filippo de Pisis, Lucio Fontana, Andy Warhol and many others stand out, documenting many of the main twentieth century international artistic movements, with a particular emphasis on the Milan period during the 50s to 70s.
Birdwatching
With its 320 bird species, the Park of the Po Delta is one of the best Italian areas for birdwatching, as is also attested by Lipu, the main association for bird protection, which has in fact placed it in fourth place in the national ranking. Among the most valuable species, we should point out the great crested Grebe, the Shelduck, the Curlew, the Egret, the various types of Heron and above all the more than 400 wonderful pink flamingos in the Salina of Comacchio.
Eels
The queen of a territory which has an age-long coexistence between land of water, is of course the eel, which has found its natural habitat in the humid atmosphere of the Valleys, becoming the main economic and food livelihood over the centuries. There are 48 different eel dishes nowadays, ranging from the very delicate risotto to the brodetto (soup), from the sweet and sour steaks to the marinated fillets right up to the grilled eel, where it releases all of its intense aroma.
