COMACCHIO: to be discovered

With fifty kilometers by car and in forty minutes from our Hotel Annunziata it is possible to reach Comacchio, a town 3 kilometers from the Adriatic Sea, in the Po Delta. Comacchio, the “little Venice”, built on the union of thirteen small islands formed by the intersection of the mouth of the Po di Primaro with the sea, had to orient its development on the water element. Comacchio’s Saltern, a protected area that protects about 600 hectares of saltern, which since 1984 is no longer used for the production of salt is therefore to visit. In fact, since ancient times the area of Comacchio has been a great supplier of salt for all of northern Italy, but probably the location of modern saltern was not the same as today; the fauna of the saltern is very varied and includes mainly birds and is home to the only nesting population of pink flamingos in central and northern Italy.
Testimony of the seafaring activity is also the Antica Pescheria, a beautiful 17th century building, now home to the daily fish market. Important historical buildings are the ancient Cathedral of San Cassiano, the Loggia del Grano and the Clock Tower. From the Ponte degli Sbirri you can enjoy the most beautiful view: on one side the Ancient Hospital of the Sick on the other the nineteenth-century Palazzo Bellini and the famous Trepponti bridge, symbol of Comacchio. From the Capuchin Portico, which leads to the Sanctuary of Santa Maria in Aula Regia, you enter the ancient Manifattura dei Marinati, perfectly restored and back into operation, where you can visit the “Fire Room”, with 12 fireplaces for cooking on the spit of eels.
The Delta Antico Museum is not to be missed.It is housed in the Hospital of the Sick, the work of the Ferrarese architect Antonio Foschini, which houses a collection of about 2000 artifacts from both the protohistoric and the Spinetic epochs – the city of Spina a few kilometers from Comacchio was a Etruscan port which traded with Greece – which dates back to Roman and medieval times; Also on display is the cargo of the Fortuna Maris, a merchant ship from the imperial era that re-emerged in 1981.
Who better then Riccardo Rescazzi (347 7262449), “among the first to qualify as an environmental guide in Comacchio, and creator of night ‘full moon’ canoe tours” to guide you at the discovery of these splendid territories? Riccardo is the ideal candidate, being a native of the Po Delta, a territory he loves.