Ravenna and the Park of the Po Delta

The territory of the Park of the Po Delta is large (60, 000 hectares) and there are several places of naturalistic and cultural interest. For simplicity, we can distinguish three main zones:

• in the North, the real Delta of Po (with canals, bends, great embankments and dunes protecting the vast territories under sea-level), the wood of Mesola (an oasis with almost virgin fauna and flora of unusual beauty, where the deer is king) and the XI century Abbey of Pomposa, one of the most significant testimonies of the Romanesque art;
  
• in the centre, the Valleys of Comacchio (Comachio is an “unusual” town in that it is built on thirteen islets interconnected by seven bridges. This “Venice” of the Po Delta, as it is sometimes popularly referred to, stands on alluvial deposits built up of thousands of years and owes its existence to extensive reclamation and other hydraulic engineering works), the famous pine-wood of St. Vitale;
  
• in the South, the pine-wood of Classe, the Basilica of St. Apollinare in Classe of the VI century and the Cervia salt-works which developed in Roman age and were constantly contended by sovereigns in the following centuries (Venice, the Emperors, the Pope, the Signorie, etc.).

The park is divided into six “stations” where you can go to start your visit by different means (bike, boat, horses). There is also a service of visits with qualified guides, based on thematic itineraries all different and suggestive. The Park has unique morphologic and geographic features in Italy. Thanks to the extensive damp ambience, it is of European importance because migratory and permanent avifauna finds shelter here.