Comacchio and Its Valleys

Legend has it that the ancient nucleus of Comacchio, the little Venice, rose on 13 small islands, connected by numerous bridges.

The Comacchio Valleys, located in Comacchio and extending as far as the province of Ravenna, constitute a vast green area of 11,000 hectares, characterised by four main valleys (Lido di Magnavacca, Fossa di Porto, Campo and Fattibello) and by the high presence of animals, birds in particular. Eel fishing is very active in the Comacchio area.

The most famous is Treponti, the emblem of the town, designed and built by Luca Danese in the first half of the 17th century; it consists of five wide staircases culminating in a rise of Istrian stone.
A small town that was born and lives between land and water and the pride of a community that has been able to survive an often harsh nature, a past that can still be breathed among the elegant streets and quiet canals. Comacchio is immersed in the Valleys, now an open-air museum, it continues along its beaches and the calendar is packed with shows, fairs and events.

The town of Comacchio and its valleys represent the “heart” of the Delta and are in fact the green lung of the entire Adriatic coast from Chioggia to Cattolica. The Comacchio Valleys are the real museum and represent one of the most important lagoon complexes in Italy and Europe. They extend in the provinces of Ferrara and part of Ravenna, for more than 11,000 hectares, between Comacchio and the Reno river, and are connected to the sea by the Magnavacca, Logonovo, Bellocchio and Gobbino canals. Formed by brackish water of very high salinity, they represent an important wetland biotope with brackish water, consisting of extreme halophytic vegetation and declared of international interest under the 1971 Ramsar Convention.

The historical and economic history of the Comacchio territory has centred and developed around the valleys; it is an almost unique example of integration between the natural environment and human activity, where salt production and fishing have always represented the primary economic bases, to which local crafts were mainly linked, agriculture being almost absent and tourism completely absent. These latter economic components developed almost simultaneously with the emergence of land reclamation and the draining of thousands of hectares of the valley, leaving unaltered that part of the valley where typical eel fishing is still practised today using special tools called lavorieri.

The total surface area is formed by the Fossa di Porto (including the Zavelea oasis), Lido di Magnavacca, Fattibello (which in the not too distant past was used for fishing for daily sustenance) and Campo valleys; it has a complex morphology due to:
of artificial embankments created to delimit fishing basins of the presence of rises, salt marshes and ancient dune belts emerging from the water.

The Boscoforte Peninsula is a very picturesque tongue of sand, jutting out from the bank of the Reno River between the Fossa di Porto and Lido di Magnavacca valleys for a length of 6 km, formed by the outcrop of a dune-littoral strip dating back to Etruscan times.
A living museum: for the plants, the birds, the bumps, the huts, for the fishermen who come across them, for the memories of an ancient affair, carrying with the wind the echo of the past.

Originating around the 10th century, due to soil subsidence and the swamping of the coastal area, they covered an area of 73,000 hectares. Initially, they were freshwater valleys, formed by the flooding of rivers. From the 16th century onwards, the encroachment of sea water was added, which created the ultimate brackish valley. Countless casoni and tabarre, which were originally built of reed and straw, could be seen between the banks and rises, but were demolished and rebuilt in masonry in the 17th and 18th centuries.

At the end of the 19th century, there were more than 70 active buildings, which today, following wartime destruction and major land reclamation, have been reduced to 5 fishing stations and 7 working watch houses.
Visitors are invited to read about the centuries-old drama of this world of water in the casoni, tabarre, cavanne, boats, fishing gear, and the everyday belongings of the valley dwellers, who were once bound to the valleys as servants of the