Aquarum Terrae - Waterlands by bike

Route analysis

Route with many different grounds, paved roads, gravel, grassy trails, dirt tracks, and cobblestones in town centres. It has a low difficulty and it is suitable for all. 
It is possible also follow smaller segments of the route.

Route length: 64,6 km
Difficulty level: low. The route follows country roads and streets with low or no traffic. Pay particular attention on crossroads and roundabouts.

Have particular attention on these passages:

- Gualtieri: urban segment of SS63 - roundabout under the bridge of SP62R var. Estimated segment length: 900 meters. 
- Reggiolo/Novellara: crossroads of SP5, the cycling path of Fiuma Canal and Via Bonifica. Cross the road with attention. 
- Reggiolo/Rolo: crossroads and segment of SP44-46 entering and exiting the town of Rolo. Estimated segment length: 600 meters.
- Reggiolo: Via Trieste/SP43, estimated segment length: 750 meters.

route description

In principle, there was only water.

Since the Roman Era, everyone who ruled here desired to regulate waters and manage the marshes that covered everything since the beginning of time. Roman engineers centuriated only some areas near Via Emilia, leaving to the flooding waters many territories near the Po river, unbridled in its wilderness.

During the History, many towns were born in uplifted areas, resembling islands in the middle of the sea. These places flourished thanks also to the Gonzaga courts and Estense Dukedom villages, bringing fine arts and culture inside these places. 
Our route starts from Guastalla, small capital of the Gonzaga territories and main town for the Reggio Emilia Plain. Here many cycling routes start, pass by or end. You can find them all at this page.

We start from the train station, final destination of the train from Reggio Emilia. We ride along Via Gonzaga, passing through the entire town centre of Guastalla. On the right side of the street we can find Palazzo Ducale, noble residency of the many families that ruled here. Exiting from Guastalla we can notice the typical shape of the defending walls, having a shape of a 7-pointed star.

We then arrive along the strands of Po river, where summer bars and establishments fire up the nights. Within short distance we can find also the ending point of Crostolo River inside the Po. It is definitely worth a visit the Ecological Restoration Area "I Caldarèn", where we can have a glance of what once was the Plain, with forests and woods that covered all the Pianura Padana.

Along the cycling trail VenTo/Eurovelo 8 we head towards Gualtieri, another small capital and home to the famous painter Antonio Ligabue. Stop here to visit Palazzo Bentivoglio and the House-Museum of Antonio Ligabue. 
Exiting Gualtieri, the landscape becomes a horizontal green line that divides the sky from the ground, in open field. Here we approach water regulation works, that permitted the creation of agriculture and foundation of towns in the entire Po Plain.

Part of the Bentivoglio Family, the Marquis Cornelio Bentivoglio appointed the creation of Cavo Fiuma, a man-made canal built in an ancient Po riverbed. This canal is nowadays of critical importance for management and regulation of waters, as this is the main branch of a much wider canal system, expanding from the foothills of Reggio and Parma, until the border with the provinces of Rovigo in Veneto Region and the Province of Ferrara. Marquis Cornelio also ordered the construction of "Botte Bentivoglio", a colossal hydraulic work for that time, built in the record time of four months during the summer of 1576. This inverted siphon lets the Fiuma Canal to underpass the Crostolo river on a lower lever compared to the one of the river. This work is still in function nowadays, and the tower on the left side of the river has a commemorative plate to remember this majestic engineering jewel.

Some centuries later, between 1924 and 1934, Natale Prampolini, one of the great engineers of Reggio Emilia, directed the works for the total land reclamation of Central Emilia-Romagna region. Thanks to this, the Italian Government of that time, granted him the direction of the land reclamation campaign of Agro Pontino, the area south of Rome in Southern Lazio Region.

Crossing the iron bridge above the Crostolo, we follow the cycling path on the right side of the river, and once in Santa Vittoria di Gualtieri, we take the left turn on the canal.

Following country roads, and flanking fields and canals, we reach Novellara. We can see from the distance the mighty "Campanone", the bell tower visible also fromg great distances. Have a stop here to visit the Rocca (the fortress) and, when in season, taste a piece of Reggiana Watermelon, local delicacy and main character of a fair in mid-July.

Exiting from Novellara, we follow Strada Valle, entering the Novellara Valleys, Ecological Restoration Area and Place of European Interest for the high level of biodiversity and endemic species. Following the Fiuma Canal embankment, we reach the crossroad inside the territory of Reggiolo. Here, during summer evenings, there is a tasty place to eat something or geting around with friends. We cross the SP5 road and we get on Via Bonifica. Here we can find Herons' Hill (Collina degli Aironi), a natural elevation in the middle of the plain that allows us to admire all the Lowlands, eye-reaching the Apennines peaks on clear sunny days.

We continue until the end of the road, reaching the crossroads with SP46 road. We cross the road and we enter into the Rolo municipality. The most typical product here is marquetry and woodworks, that you can admire in the Marquetry Museum. At the end of October, the town feasts in the San Simone fair, with markets, street artists and local delicacies.

Riding north, we connect with SP46 crossing the Fiuma Canal bridge, and taking the left turn, we merge on the Via Porto cycling path, in Reggiolo Municipality.
Following our lead, we then arrive in Reggiolo town centre, with the neat Piazza Martiri and Palazzo Sartoretti. We can also admire the medieval Castle, unfortunately still recovering from the earthquake that in 2012 shocked these lands.

We exit from Reggiolo onto Via Malagoli and we get back into the countryside. Here, among country roads and gravel tracks, we slowly come back to Guastalla, crossing the villages of San Girolamo and San Martino, and finally reaching the train station in Guastalla.

how to arrive

It is possible to follow this route entirely or you can start from one of the passage points, following the GPX tracks (for GPS devices and mobile apps supporting this file), KML files (for Google Earth) or the PDF map.

Arriving in Guastalla:

- by car: from Reggio Emilia via SP63R until the intersection in Gualtieri - Ligabue Shopping Center, from here, take SP62R var until the San Giacomo/Guastalla/Novellara exit.

- by train: from Reggio Emilia FS there is a direct connection on the Reggio-Guastalla line.

Arriving in Gualtieri:

- by car: via SP63R from Reggio Emilia

- by train: Gualtieri station lies on the Suzzara-Parma line. From Reggio Emilia you have to switch trains in Guastalla, while from Mantua you have to switch trains in Suzzara.

Arriving in Novellara:

- by car: from Reggio Emilia, take SP3 to Bagnolo in Piano - Novellara

- by train: Novellara has its own station on the Reggio-Guastalla train line.

Arriving in Rolo:

- by car: via A22 Motorway, the Reggiolo-Rolo toll booth is located directly inside the territory of Rolo. From here continue in direction of Rolo-Guastalla-Fabbrico onto SP44 for 1,5km, taking the left at the junction.

- by train: there is the local station of Rolo-Novi-Fabbrico on Mantova-Modena train line.

Arriving in Reggiolo:

- by car: via A22 Motorway, Reggiolo-Rolo exit. On ordinary roads, from Reggio Emilia take SP3 until Novellara, and then SP5 to Reggiolo.

- by train: on the Modena-Mantova line, the two stations of Gonzaga-Reggiolo (north of Reggiolo) and Villanova di Reggiolo (east of Reggiolo) are available, respectively 3kms far from the town

map and tracks

PDF (downloads the PDF map)

Traccia GPX (for GPS devices and mobile supporting apps)

Traccia KML (for Google Earth)