River village of Porto Levante

❝At the mouth of the Po di Levante stands the village of Porto Levante, a jewel of the maritime villages immortalized in literary works of Gianni Celati. On the northernmost branch of the Po Delta and outfitted with marina facilities, Porto Levante represents an excellent starting point for excursions on the river, into the large surrounding lagoons, or to the Adriatic Sea.❞

Porto Levante is one of the best ways to access the area of the Po Delta Park, since it is located at the mouth of the waterway that connects the Polesine to the Po hinterland: through this navigable canal it is possible to reach the cities of Rovigo, Mantova , Ferrara, Cremona and Piacenza. Starting from the mouth of the Po di Levante, it is possible to experience a fascinating and exhaustive navigation route, entering the numerous canals that allow you to reach other inland river ports.
The village of Porto Levante, overlooking the lagoon area of Sacca Cavallari, separated from the sea by the homonymous sandbar (or "scanno"), looks like a typical fishing village, with low and colourful houses, a characteristic 18^th century church and a rich wooded area, which preserves an old ice house and is a great place for locals to come for pleasant walks.
Porto Levante is associated with well-established river imagery that reminds us of interesting literary references, such as those of the writer and director Gianni Celati. In his book Verso la Foce (Towards the river mouth), he describes the village lying on the river through the sounds and voices that characterize it: "This place is a small cluster of houses in a row, at the end of a long inlet that resembles a canal. [...] Most of the houses are located along the harbour crowded with fishing boats, houses with the light plaster of seaside towns. Two girls call each other from one house to the other, making prolonged cries like birds [...] I hear screams from boats as well, but these are spoken in recognizable words. Meanwhile swifts fly low above boats, nosediving and then climbing again only at the last moment".
Overlooking the Sacca Cavallari lagoon is the Marina di Porto Levante port, a tourist dock with numerous berths and a convenient landing place for sailing to the Adriatic, as well as along the waterways that head inland. The lagoon that stretches in front of the port is bounded by Scanno Cavallari, a strip of land of significant naturalistic interest, with a freely accessible beach (untouched by human intervention) and equipped with a dock. The beach is characterized by the typical vegetation of the environments between the sea and the lagoon and is frequented by numerous species of birds that find an ideal habitat here: black-winged stilt, grey and purple herons, ducks, mallards that nestle among the reeds and tamarisks, but also buzzards and western marsh harriers. In the summer season there is a ferry from Porto Levante to the beach of the barrier island.