Are you planning to go to Italy this summer time and are on the lookout for an uncommon vacation spot? Take a look at this information on methods to spend 1 day in Comacchio, Italy – a tiny canal city in Emilia-Romagna with charming canals and attention-grabbing issues to do.
We visited Emilia-Romagna extra instances than we are able to depend. From testing non-touristy sights in Bologna to visiting small towns in Emilia-Romagna, from hiking the Via degli Abati to cycling the Cammino di San Vicinio, there are only a few locations within the area we haven’t but been to.
Considered one of them is Comacchio, a small city within the province of Ferrara, not removed from the Po Delta, the place Italy’s longest river flows into the Adriatic Sea.
Comacchio is constructed on 13 islands divided by canals, with picturesque stone bridges, courting again over 500 years. Its look lent it the nickname ‘Little Venice’ – minus the crowds and cheesy memento retailers, in fact. Despite the fact that, to be trustworthy, it reminded me more of Burano than Venice. I suppose the little vibrant homes and peaceable ambiance had one thing to do with it.
So, sure, Comacchio is certainly a phenomenal little city, one the place picture alternatives may be discovered round each nook. However there’s extra. The city and environment are wealthy in historical past – the necessary Etruscan town of Spina and a Roman ship have been excavated close by. It’s also the proper base to explore the Po Delta, one in every of Italy’s finest wildlife locations, and it’s an attention-grabbing vacation spot for meals lovers, with a fish canning manufacturing unit lively for over 100 years.
If you end up in Ravenna, Bologna, or on a road trip around Northern Italy, Comacchio is certainly value a cease. You’ll be able to keep within the city itself, or in one of many campsites and vacation resorts on the close by Adriatic coast, providing wonderful worth for cash. Comacchio can be nice to discover on a day journey – preserve studying to learn the way to plan the proper day journey to this offbeat vacation spot!
Attending to Comacchio, Italy
A part of the explanation why Comacchio is so quiet is that there isn’t any practice station. The closest station is in Ostellato, about 20 km away, but it surely’s rather a lot simpler to attain Comacchio by bus from both Ravenna (bus 333) or Ferrara (bus 331) – yow will discover information and timetables on this website.
If in case you have your individual automotive, driving from Ravenna or Ferrara may be very straightforward, taking about 40 minutes from each cities. Driving time from Bologna is roughly 1 hour 15. Comacchio is also a fast detour for these driving alongside the Adriatic coast of Italy, or between Bologna and Venice, being roughly midway between the 2 cities.
1 Day in Comacchio – Morning
Go to the Historic Centre
If you’re visiting Comacchio in summer time, attempt to get there as early as attainable to keep away from the intense warmth and be capable of sightsee with nobody else round. Despite the fact that Comacchio is visited by far fewer vacationers in comparison with different Italian hotspots, it’s nonetheless a preferred day-trip vacation spot for individuals spending their holidays on the close by Adriatic coast.
The guts of the Comacchio historic centre features a pedestrian-only zone bordered by canals, the place you’ll discover many of the principal sights. Begin your go to at Trepponti, a singular triple bridge that when doubled up as a metropolis gate, when entry to the city was solely attainable by water.
The bridge has three towers and 5 staircases, connecting 4 totally different canals – it’s attention-grabbing to note that the span of the bridge going through the Adriatic is greater than those resulting in the city, stopping bigger boats from crossing with out authorization.
Trepponti was designed by architect Claudio Danesi within the Seventeenth century, when many of the metropolis was renovated. Similar to Trepponti, it was constructed with bricks and stones caved in Istria, simply throughout the Adriatic. The identical architect additionally designed the Ponte degli Sbirri (Cops Bridge), taking its identify from the close by metropolis jail. This bridge connects 4 totally different canals heading to the Adriatic to the east, to the lagoon to the south, and to town centre to the north.
The identical Istrian stone and crimson bricks combo may be discovered within the structure of Comacchio’s Cathedral, devoted to San Cassiano da Imola, town’s patron saint which you’ll be able to see portrayed on a wood statue on the principle altar.
The principle canal in Comacchio is Canale Pallotta, named after the cardinal who dominated town within the Seventeenth century and commissioned Trepponti and the opposite principal bridges within the metropolis. Exterior the historic centre, alongside the canal you’ll discover a cycle path main out of the city to the seashores.
Different notable buildings in Comacchio embrace the Loggia dei Mercanti del Grano, a chic Seventeenth-century constructing with a double archway entrance that when housed Comacchio’s grain storehouse, and Palazzo Bellini, courting again to the nineteenth century and now house to Comacchio’s library.
Head to Manifattura dei Marinati
Trying within the home windows of specialty meals retailers or on the menus of eating places throughout Comacchio, you’ll discover one merchandise being repeated over and over – anguille, that means eels. You’ll discover smoked eels, marinated eels, grilled eels, eels in brodetto – these fish have been as soon as the staple meals of this area, and an important a part of its economic system.
Eels are born within the Sargasso Sea, within the coronary heart of the Atlantic ocean, and migrate to the calm, heat waters of the lagoons round Comacchio to mate and spend about 15 years of their lives, earlier than returning to the Sargasso Sea to die. The abundance not simply of eels but in addition of sardines and different kinds of fish was already recognized in historical instances, and a system was devised to catch eels, retailer them in low-bottomed boats, earlier than roasting and marinating them to protect them for longer.
You’ll be able to find out about this course of on the Manifattura dei Marinati, a constructing that works each as a fish manufacturing unit, and a museum. You’ll be able to see the instruments and boats used to catch and retailer eels, see the fireplaces the place they’re roasted and discover out about this century-old system nonetheless in use to today.
Wandering across the website, you’ll additionally discover photographs of Sophia Loren. The well-known actress frolicked in Comacchio in 1955, starring within the film ‘La Donna del Fiume’, the place she performed a neighborhood woman who labored on the fish manufacturing unit.
Each autumn, the Manifattura dei Marinati turns into a manufacturing unit as soon as once more – eels, sardines, and different fish are caught, roasted and preserved in vinegar into tins. You should purchase the fish on the store onsite or at many meals shops throughout Comacchio.
Lunch at a Conventional Restaurant
After studying about how fish is historically caught and ready within the Po Delta, your 1 day in Comacchio might proceed with a conventional lunch to strive a few of these recipes!
The historic centre is awash with eating places providing native delicacies – a superb one is La Comacina, serving up conventional recipes together with risotto with locally-caught fish, barbecued eel, strigoli pasta with eels and different recipes laborious to search out outdoors the Po Delta.
1 Day in Comacchio – Afternoon
Go to Museo del Delta Antico
On scorching days, early afternoons are when the warmth is at its most insufferable, making it the proper time to retreat to a cool, air-conditioned museum. Fortunately, Comacchio has the proper place to take action – Museo del Delta Antico (Historic Delta Museum), a superb archeology museum. The constructing housing the museum was as soon as a hospital, lively till the late Seventies.
The Po Delta space has been inhabited ever for the reason that Iron Age, however the first sizeable settlement is the Etruscan city of Spina, courting again to the sixth century BC. Spina was on the crossroads between the Mediterranean and continental Europe, the place amber from the Baltic Sea was traded with wine, oil, and pottery from Greece.
Spina was found at first of the twentieth century simply outdoors Comacchio, and plenty of findings from its necropolis are housed within the museum. But, the principal exhibit within the museum is the Roman ship Fortuna Maris, wrecked within the 1st century BC and located in 1981 with its cargo nonetheless intact and nicely preserved. You’ll be able to see Spanish lead ingots, amphorae containing wines from the Greek Islands, and the belongings of the crew and passengers, together with some distinctive ‘transportable’ temples used for prayer.
The museum additionally highlights Comacchio’s heyday within the Center Ages, when the city was very rich due to the commerce of salt from the close by saltpans. The city modified fingers a number of instances between the fifth and ninth century AD, between the Western Roman Empire, Byzantines, Goths, Lombards and Venetians – on the time, it was a busy port with a robust navy rivaling Venice.
Please be aware that the Museum is open from 9.30 am to six.30 pm with no break solely in July and August. All different months, it’s closed for lunch between 1 and three pm – simply take a leisurely lunch break and get there as quickly because it opens to maximise your time in Comacchio!
Boat Tour of the Po Delta
Relying on how lengthy you are taking on the museum, you’ll most likely have time for a day ice-cream earlier than persevering with your day in Comacchio with a sundown boat tour of the Po Delta Regional Park. As talked about earlier than, Comacchio is near the place the Po river meets the Adriatic Sea, making a shifting panorama of islands and lagoons, canals and tidelands.
A ship tour is an effective way to discover this delicate ecosystem, the place people and nature have labored collectively for hundreds of years to protect ecological stability. You’ll see the valli di pesca, shallow sectioned components of lagoon the place sustainable fish farming has been practised since Roman instances – it was attention-grabbing to study that this system truly will increase biodiversity, attracting marine birds and defending the lagoon from exterior pollution.
We additionally handed by some bilance, fishing machines with big nets hooked up to a crane which is then lowered into the lagoon. Most of them are privately owned, however some have been became seafood eating places.
A Po Delta boat tour is particularly value doing at sundown, to admire the present of the setting solar reflecting into the lagoon and to extend your possibilities of recognizing some wildlife. This time we solely noticed flamingoes from a distance, however throughout our other visit of the Po Delta in 2015 we noticed many marine birds and even some wild horses.
Boat excursions are between one and two hours lengthy, begin and finish in Comacchio, and normally price round €25. Get in contact with Po Delta tourism if you wish to know extra – additionally they set up land-based excursions of the Delta by bike and minibus, in addition to kayaking excursions.
1 Day in Comacchio – Night
Spritz and Dinner at Tenting Florenz
There’s one final cease I like to recommend earlier than ending your day in Comacchio – aperitivo and beachside dinner at Restaurant Monnalisa in Tenting Florenz, only a fast drive away.
If you wish to spend longer than only a day in Comacchio, you may need to keep on the coast reasonably than on the town. This stretch of Adriatic Coast is made up of lengthy, broad, sandy seashores, with shallow and (normally) calm water, ideally suited for households and newbie swimmers. There are a number of campsites and vacation resorts situated proper by the seashore, providing a number of lodging choices that vary from tent pitches, to personal bungalows and luxurious beachside suites with non-public verandah.
Probably the greatest vacation resorts is Tenting Florenz – whether or not or not you resolve to spend the evening, we advocate swinging by within the night for dinner at their Restaurant Monnalisa, with a artistic seafood-based menu and improbable location proper on the seashore. What a solution to finish an exquisite day in Comacchio!
When to Go to Comacchio, Italy
The finest instances of the yr to go to Comacchio are undoubtedly late spring and early autumn, when the temperature is delicate and the times are nonetheless lengthy. Comacchio is rarely overrun with crowds, however it may get busy on summer time weekends or when particular occasions are on. If crowds trouble you, keep away from weekends and go to in the course of the week as a substitute.
October is an excellent time to go to, particularly when the Sagra dell’Anguilla is on – a meals pageant on the primary three weekends of the month specializing in eel and different conventional fish-based preparations, with tastings across the cities and particular degustation menus. There are additionally historic reenactments, stay music and cooking exhibits with cooks from different international locations presenting their eel-based recipes – in 2022 one of many company was a chef from the Ivory Coast.
One other good time to go to Comacchio is February, when the Carnevale sull’Acqua takes place. As a substitute of the standard floats, embellished boats with masqueraded individuals sail down Comacchio’s canals, and plenty of locals parade across the metropolis in fancy costume.
This isn’t a historic carnevale like Ivrea or Venice, having been held solely since 2012, but it surely’s nonetheless a very enjoyable motive to go to Comacchio, Italy!
Our journey was sponsored by the tourism boards of Emilia-Romagna, Ravenna, Comacchio and Cervia. Thanks for the great expertise!
