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World Europe Italy Veneto The Po River Delta Learn

The Po River Delta

Learn about The Po River Delta

A concise introduction to The Po River Delta, its geography, history and culture.

Introduction

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The Po River Delta is where Italy's longest river finally reaches the Adriatic, in the southernmost corner of the Veneto -- a flat country of branching channels, lagoons, sandbars and reclaimed fields that is almost entirely water, sky and horizon.

It is a young landscape and largely an artificial one. Venice cut a new course for the river between 1600 and 1604 to stop its silt filling the lagoon, and the delta as it exists today grew seaward from that decision.

It is now a regional park and a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, with more than three hundred bird species, breeding flamingos, and a fishing and mussel-farming culture that is unlike anywhere else in northern Italy.

Geography

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The Po Delta is the flat, water-laced country where the Po splits into several branches and enters the Adriatic -- the southern edge of the Veneto, much of it at or below sea level, and still growing seaward.

Read the full Geography guide →

History

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The modern delta dates from a single decision: between 1600 and 1604 Venice cut the Po into a new southward course to stop its silt choking the lagoon. Everything since -- reclamation, the 1951 flood, mass emigration -- has followed from living on the land that resulted.

Read the full History guide →

Culture

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Delta culture is a water culture: eel and mussels, flat-bottomed boats, huts on stilts, and a shared memory of the 1951 flood that still marks how people here talk about the river.

Read the full Culture guide →

How It Was Built

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The Delta is built as infrastructure: embankments, drainage channels and pumping stations that keep the water out, with low villages strung along the dykes and fishing huts on stilts at the water's edge.

Read the full How It Was Built guide →

Climate Patterns

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The Delta has a humid continental climate -- hot, sticky summers, cold foggy winters -- moderated slightly at the coast, with mosquitoes a genuine feature from late spring to autumn.

Read the full Climate Patterns guide →

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