Image Mention the words “Italy” and Water” in the same breath and what springs to mind of course is Venice! In fact Italy is not that well-known for its inland waterways, but in reality it offers a surprisingly interesting variety of opportunities for the boating enthusiast, starting with those canals and rivers connecting to the Venice lagoon, which link the lagoons from the Po delta on the Adriatic to Trieste, a total of some 750km of navigable waterways.

The classic Venetian round-trip cruise of some 120km takes about a week and allows time to visit  the Lagoon islands of Murano, Burano, and Torcello as well as the waterways of Venice itself.

The Po and its connecting waterways are used not only by commercial traffic, but by hotel boats and pleasure boaters too,  and it’s navigable up to Pavia, with a branch to Ferrara at Pontelagoscuro.

The Lombardy Region’s waterways are now [partly restored, and the canals though Milan were re-opened in 2006, but they appear still to be used mainly by tripping boats.
Finally the Tiber is navigable as far as Rome, as is the Navicelli Canal from Livorno to Pisa.

Contacts:

Navigli Lombardi www.naviglilombardi.it (Authority).

Federazione Italiana Motonautica http://domino.fimconi.it « go back