Audio tourWaterways Explorer: The Last Boatmen - Battaglia and Bisato Canals - First

The river landscape of the lower Padana Plain is characterized by a dense weave of largely natural waterways and by an equally complex network of artificial canals. Until the 1960s, numerous goods-carrying vessels would have been found along these liquid “roads”, commanded by barcari or fresh water sailors/boatmen. This profession, now no longer in existence, was “a hard and sometimes risky job, one at the mercy of the seasons. With rough, sun burnt skin, the daily life on board gave the boatmen an incredible inner strength”, Riccardo Cappellozza, last boatman of Battaglia Terme tells us.

The itinerary is divided into two parts, creating a sort of return trip.

Citations:

* F. Jori, L’ultimo dei barcari, Pordenone, 2009 (citazioni tratte dalle pp.: 15, 118, 124).

** M. Mainardi, Zingari d’acqua, Venezia, 2012 (citazioni tratte da p. 62).