In Romagna, between land and water, right where the Po River flows into the Adriatic Sea, a unique artisan tradition was born, capable of transforming a local product at zero cost, the cane that grows spontaneously in the Delta area, first into many objects of daily use, and then into artistic craftsmanship.
It seems that it all began in Villanova di Bagnacavallo, a few kilometres from Ravenna, where the genius locii (ingenious people) developed a great skill in weaving marsh grasses over the centuries: here, people lived, worked, and even played with reeds and rushes, because the use of grasses and seasonal mowing guaranteed the continuous renewal of the ecosystem of a valley unique in biodiversity.
From the capable hands of the people of Romagna came mats of different sizes and qualities, trellises, ties, brooms of various kinds, shopping bags, baskets, hats, shoes, waistcoats, straw coverings for flasks, even entire huts. At the end of the 19th century, the fame of the weaving craftsmen was such that they were invited from Romagna to the International Exhibition of Paris in 1900, and then, in the 1970s, in Bagnacavallo, Argenta, Comacchio and Ostellato, tens of thousands of manufactured articles were produced, with ever greater attention to the taste and fashion of the time. And what about today?
To (re)discover this entirely local heritage, we obviously start from Bagnacavallo, where the Ecomuseum of Marsh Herbs and the traditional Marsh Herbs Festival, scheduled every year in September, perfectly tell the story of the golden age of Romagna weaving.
The Ecomuseum of Marsh Grasses is organised into various exhibition sections and includes educational and multimedia rooms. The museum displays a rich collection of artifacts and equipment related to the processing and weaving of marsh grasses and local wood, a characteristic of the villlage until the 1960s: household objects, creations made with the weaving of grasses and wood all exclusively handmade. In the reconstruction of the house-workshop of a Romagna marsh craftsman, you can “play with nothing”, rediscovering the creativity and manual skills of the children from a century ago, or try to weave herbs directly with your own hands, while in a corner of the early twentieth-century kitchen, the furnishings and tools once used for preparing food and soups are displayed, addressing the themes of wisdom, frugality and origin. Outside the Museum, in the external garden, there is the ethno-park, called “Villanova delle Capanne” where all the types of classic Romagna huts made of marsh reeds have been reconstructed.
The ideal time to explore Bagnacavallo is definitely the beginning of September, when the Marsh Herbs Festival takes place: a unique festival with a reenactment of the nineteenth-century techniques of processing valley herbs and local wood, workshops, exhibitions, markets, shows, meetings and convivial gastronomy. On Saturday and Sunday in particular, the entire town is transformed into a large market and a fervent workshop that welcomes the professions of art, nature and ancient workshops.
From Bagnacavallo, you can then begin a journey to explore the great protagonist of this story, the Po Delta: it has been a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve for 10 years; its 54 thousand hectares of protected reserve host natural areas such as the Pine Forests of Ortazzo and Ortazzino, the oasis of Punta Alberete, the Valley of the Reeds, the Mouth of the Bevano with its coastal dunes and the Mesola Woods.
We begin by visiting the Pine Forests of Ortazzo and Ortazzino, two extraordinarily beautiful protected areas where you can immerse yourself in a landscape of dunes, woods and freshwater mirrors and wait for numerous species of birds, including herons and pink flamingos. Continuing on along our itinerary, we head towards the Punta Alberete oasis, a wetland of immense ecological value, ideal for a stroll along the wooden walkways that allow you to observe the flora and fauna without disturbing the environment.
The journey continues in the Valley of the Reeds, where the tradition ofweaving was born: reed beds and bodies of water that host a unique biodiversity, to be admired on a boat trip. From here, we move first to the Mouth of the Bevano, where the coastal dunes create an astonishing and unspoilt landscape, and then on to the Mesola Woods, one of the last alluvial forests of the Po Valley, the natural habitat of the Mesola deer, a protected native species.
To conclude this adventure in the Delta, there are the salty lagoons of Goro and Comacchio, to explore by bike along the banks, admiring the fishing huts. In Comacchio, among the picturesque canals and the characteristic brick bridges, you must not miss trying the marinated eel: the Manifattura dei Marinati (Marinated Factory) is the ideal starting point to discover the bond between craftsmanship and food that characterises Romagna.