Islands and lagoons of the Adriatic Coast: Part 1 Ravenna to the Po Delta

Published on:  | Last updated: 8 February 2018

Cyclists, Lago di Comacchio

Cyclists, Lago di Comacchio

The route starts from Ravenna heading towards the Lago di Comacchio where it detours inland to the little town of Comacchio. Look out for the flamingoes. Comacchio was once an important centre for salt production (once a vitally important and scarce commodity – ‘oro bianco’ white gold). It’s definitely worth a stop: look out for the unusual Trepponti triple bridge.

After Comacchio it takes you through the Parco Delta Po, skirting the nature reserve of the Gran Bosco della Mesola to the fishing village of Gorino at the mouth of the river Po.

If you get the time, make the short detour to the Abbazia (abbey) di Pomposa. Much of the church dates back almost a millennium, the nucleus of the church was built between the 7th and 9th centuries. The frescoes in the nave were painted in the 13th century.

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At Gorino the route connects with the excellent FE20 Destra Po cycleway which follows the southern bank of the Po and forms part of the eurovelo 8.

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Places to stay

Hotels and B&Bs

Find and book places to stay with Booking.com

There are a plenty of hotels in Ravenna and on the coast north of Ravenna, but there are a lot fewer in the Po delta area.

Booking.com pages for places on this section of the route:

 About these links

If you use these links to book accommodation Booking.com will pay me a small part of their commission. This helps support the costs of producing this site.

I use Booking.com to find and book places to stay when there are no campsites in the area. The large majority of hotels and many hostels are now on ‘Booking’. I like it because it means that I can get almost-instant confirmation. The rating system is also a reliable guide to the quality of the accommodation.

I’ve never had a problem finding places to keep my bike —even if it’s a cupboard or store room. I always use the ‘special requests’ field on the booking form to tell the hotel that I’m travelling with a bike, which gives them the opportunity to let me know if there’s a problem.

Many properties offer free cancellation but it’s a good idea to check the conditions as these vary from property to property.

Hostels

There’s a hostel in Ravenna: the Hostel Dante.

Campsites

There are lots of campsites along the coast north of Ravenna and on the coast near Comacchio. Finding a site towards the end of the section may be trickier – there’s a sosta camper on the road passing the Gran Bosco della Mesola – a sosta camper is a place for campervans but it’s on a grassy site so it should be possible to camp there. There’s also a small sosta camper with minimal services at Gorino – again it might be possible to camp there if you are stuck

  Map of campsites along the route:  ILAC-campsites-map-show map in overlay    |    ILAC-campsites-map-show map in new window   

Articles in this series

Lago di Comacchio - Emilia-Romagna

Lago di Comacchio – Emilia-Romagna

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