Comacchio

photo by Chris Clarke

About 50 miles south of Venezia (as the crow flies), and south of the Po River delta, is a small community built on several islands that are separated by canals and connected by bridges.  It's a small town called Comacchio.

I'd love to take credit for discovering this little gem, but Chris Clarke gets the bragging rights here.

Of course to say that one has "discovered" an area that is already lived in, is presumptuous (just ask some of my Navajo friends). 
All-the-same, As far as the Gondola Blog goes, Chris Clarke brought Comacchio to our attention.

Chris describes Comacchio as:

"A small town just south of the Po delta famous principally for rice farming and eel fishing." 

He also said the town has:

"a well known and quite magnificent bridge which crosses five canals."

When Chris and his wife Giulia came to visit me in Newport a while back, they told me about this town, and about the unique boats there that look like sandoli, but are poled rather than rowed.

It seems that the men who pilot these boats take passengers in a similar way to gondoliers.  Chris and Giulia explained that the boats were "punted" (like those in England), and that the punting poles were forked at the end.

Nereo Zane tells me that:
The fisherman "punt" instead of row because the water is alway very low so punting is less tiring.

The poles are forked and one end to be easily extracted from the mud.
In searching for information on Comacchio, I was surprised at how very little information was available on-line. 
Nereo did send me an attached visitor's guide (in Italian and French).
I look forward to seeing the place for myself one day.