Comacchio is like a small Venice, built on islands in a lagoon and connected by canals and bridges, roughly 30 km north of Ravenna at the southern edge of the Po Delta. The comparison to Venice is obviously hyperbolic — Comacchio is a small town of 20,000, not a city — but the visual logic holds: pale facades reflected in still water, boats moored at doorsteps, and the Ponte dei Trepponti at the northern entrance, a 17th-century bridge of extraordinary design with five stairways ascending from five different directions to a single central arch.
The town is built on the Valle di Comacchio, one of the largest brackish lagoon systems in Europe and a habitat for eels since Roman times. Comacchio's defining product is the eel, caught in the surrounding wetlands and preserved for centuries using a marinating technique developed here: slow-cooked in vinegar and spices, then stored in terracotta vessels. The Manifattura dei Marinati — the old eel processing factory, now a working museum — is the most atmospheric building in town. The Sagra dell'Anguilla (Eel Festival) in October draws visitors from across Emilia-Romagna.
Beyond the lagoon and the eel, there are good Baroque churches — the Cattedrale di San Cassiano on the main square, the Church of Santo Rosario on Piazza del Popolo — and a genuinely unhurried atmosphere that makes Comacchio a pleasant base for exploring the Po Delta. The Lidi di Comacchio, 5 km to the east, offer wide sandy Adriatic beaches for a day's swimming.