Comacchio: Little Venice

Once cut off from land and only accessible by boat, Comacchio is a lagoon town in the Po Delta … considered the capital of the Po Delta Park, which protects this vital ecosystem.

We’d never heard of this town until recently. About three weeks ago, we saw a photo of its landmark bridge — Trepponti … actually Ponte Pallotta — reflected in the calm, mirror smooth waters of the canal that runs through the town, and which connects to larger canals that link it to the delta. We were sold. We needed to come and see it for ourselves.

First order of business after dropping off our bags at Villa Carducci … lunch … before the restaurant recommended by Tatiana, the front desk manager, shut down for siesta. Turns out that we didn’t have to worry about that … the place is closed on Mondays. So, we grabbed a quick piadina at a café … with the idea that we would dine out in style tonight.

Why were we in such a hurry? The sky was blue; the sun was shining; and there were reflections galore on the canal waters. These conditions were forecasted to disappear overnight into tomorrow. So, time was of the essence.

We accomplished our goal and had a delightful time doing so.

We even made some friends.

Jane & Michael, an Australian couple from Canberra, were on the same bus with us from Ravenna. We had chatted with them a bit about our 5-month trip to Australia … surprising them into exclaiming that “no one comes to Canberra,” when we told them we’d actually spent 3 days in their city.

Anyway, we kept running into them as we explored this charming town. On one of those encounters, Michael suggested we meet for drinks at 5:00p … our first Aperol spritz after a disastrous experience with the drink in Venice in 2018 … enjoyed it this time.

When Jane & Michael left to meet up with their driver at 6:00p, we returned to our hotel to get settled in and rest up until our dinner reservation.

We had a lovely meal at Al Cantinon. Since the wind had picked up and there was a chill in the air, we opted for a table indoors. Everyone else was dining outside it seems, so we had the place to ourselves. Delicious food … good, attentive service … a lovely Sangiovese … frutti di mare fritti (fried seafood … shrimp, calamari, cuttlefish, and more) … seafood pasta … and an amazing pistachio semifreddo.

An excellent day of sightseeing in a small, crowd-free town … one that reminded us of Burano … in the northern Venetian Lagoon. Comacchio may not be the easiest place to get to with public transportation, but it definitely has proven itself worthy of the effort to do so.Read more