Third Itinerary
- Trail Conditions: On foot
After parking your car near Santa Maria dell'Argine Church, you can go along a pedestrian or cycling path following the middle bank between the river Po and the main embankment. Along the path, you will admire the characteristic Po Plain farmsteads situated in the state-owned area next to the riverbed, risking every year to be damaged by the floods. Some of them are still populated, others have been abandoned for safety reasons. The route is also interesting for other reasons. First of all, the possibility to admire the "oxbows", small lakes of different size deriving from the annual floods of the river Po or, more seldom, from the presence of resurgences.
It is an important feature of the territory, since around the oxbows there is a micro-environment populated by various animal species coming to lay eggs in spring. Moreover, the vegetation of these stretches of water grows without human interference and leads our thoughts back to the times when landscape was not shaped by man. Moreover, the itinerary is also interesting because it shows the effects of the violent floods of the river Po on the countryside. In 2001, the middle bank broke, leading to significant changes in the surroundings. Now it is possible to see the recovery measures, demonstrating how the seeming peacefulness of the river can become a devastating fury.
