The Isle of Polesine Camerini

Go cycling under the shadow of the old industrial giant

• Departure: Piazza Alcide De Gasperi Polesine Camerini (Porto Tolle)
• Arrival: Porto Tolle
• Duration: 2.00 h by bike, 6.00 h on foot
• Difficulty Level: Easy
• Recommended Period: from January to December
• Involved Municipalities: Porto Tolle

Panoramic and faunal ring tour
Most of the Isle of Polesine Camerini can be visited along the surrounding bank tops. The stretch along the straightened creek of Volta Vaccari is of great naturalistic interest as well as, on the southern side, the lagoons of Busa del Canarin and Busa Bastimento, wide expanses of cane fields with uncommon and most interesting bird species, the signs of a fast-changing territory, sand-banks, shoal shelves, marshes and food plains created by the relentless collision between the river and the sea.

It is not a real island but a territory surrounded by two branches of the river Po and the Adriatic Sea, connected to the mainland only by a bridge.
It starts from the square of the small village of Polesine Camerini, born during the 50s agrarian reform, moving to the Palazzo Camerini with the large farmyard, you then get on the bank of the Po di Tolle where you turn right. Following the dirt track you arrive at the Volta Vaccari oasis and run along the dead branch of the Po, having the oasis on the other side, soon reaching the corrected course of the river. You arrive at the Enel station and walk along the external perimeter, seeing the water intake works, the fuel oil tanks, the drainage work, with the boilers and the tall chimney. You are now near a lagoon environment, the Sacca del Canarin, where you can see the sandbar and arrive at the departure area of the clam fishermen, with piers and huts and with an unusual floating restaurant. Continuing, you leave the greenhouses on the right that use the waste heat from the station and, at the Boscolo water-pump, you turn left taking the road that runs alongside the river embankment. The top of it is unpaved and, if the grass is not too high, it is worth walking along it always having a view of the lagoon. The sea defense embankment joins that of the Po (Bastimento branch) becoming paved again; both the mouth and the "flooded area" are visible: this area fifty years ago was over the level sea and cultivated, now it is a refuge for numerous species of birds. On the other side of the river, you can see Scardovari with the port and a little further upstream, in the middle of the river, some low pillars to indicate an anti-rising barrier of the saline wedge and, in the countryside, the remains of old houses whose occupants did not withstand the floods and emigrated. Nearby is the agricultural court of Pellestrina with the large manor house. We skirt large and lush floodplains up to Polesine Camerini.