Adriabike 13 - The Salt and Sugar Route

This stage coincides with the old trade route which connected Padua to Chioggia. Leaving the historical centre of Padua you head towards the river ring of the city, on the right bank of the Battaglia canal, heading towards the pointed outlines of the Euganean Hills. In the distance you can see the famous hotels of the biggest spa resort in Europe: Abano and Montegrotto. You reach Battaglia Terme, natural gateway to the Euganean Hills Park and important river junction: you can visit the interesting Civic Museum of River Navigation and admire the spectacular waterfall, regulated by the old hydraulic post of “Arco di Mezzo”. From here you continue alongside the winding Vigenzone canal towards Chioggia. The ancient canal was the strategic waterway which hosted the “burci”, large transport boats, which carried salt from Chioggia, sugar from Pontelongo and “masegne” trachyte from the hills. The route first leads to Bovolenta, then to Pontelongo – the sugar town – characterised by the fine town hall and Villa Foscarini Erizzo, and finally you reach Correzzola a small centre with a sixteenth-century Benedictine court founded by the monks who carried out important reclamation works in the area. On a river bank you pass by the Ca’ di Mezzo natural oasis and then head towards Brondolo and Chioggia, a characteristic fishing town.

Conditions: easy route, almost always on river banks, mostly asphalted, except for some stretches of dirt road