Averto valley. The lagoon is the area of coastline where the sea rests wedged into the ground, which is modelled according to its moods welcoming large brackish water called valleys. Fishermen have used these places as fishing site since the ancient time.
A natural oasis in the middle of the lagoon
It is the nature that elected these wet very special environment as ideal habitats for fish species, plant and avifauna. The Venetian lagoon is the most famous and celebrated all over the world.
Among the most striking and most easily accessible, Averto Valley, along the Romea between Chioggia and Mestre, it is a fragment of this universe of water, that man has tried to govern and enhance.
Purchased by WWF, Averto Valley is now one of the most important oasis. One of those where there are concentrated more resources and energy.
It is a typical fishing valley which runs along the bottom of the valleys, surrounded by alluvial soil of silt and clay which emerge during the low tide. On the whole, the landscape consists of large stretches of brackish water, reeds, hygrophilous woods, fallow fields, canals and hedges. The waters of the oasis are full of a large concentration of marine invertebrates and fish adapted to the wide variations of salinity. A vital presence for the resting and nesting of many water birds that frequent the valley.
The walk begins in the valley from the Visitor Centre, the Ca’ Tiepola, a typical Renaissance mansions where you can see thematic exhibitions, collections of materials typical of the lagoon, movies, audiovisual, various historic and naturalistic materials. A little further the path begins: you walk hidden by the vegetation and stop at shelters, observation towers, a “boathouse”, typical shelter for boats lagoon, and a “lavoriero”, a typical structure for fishing. WWF Italy owns 84 of the 200 hectares of the reserve, in agreement with the Ministry of Environment.
Much larger, 500 hectares, the area that has been identified as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention and Oasis Regional Protection.
A few kilometers from the Valley Averto, there are the very extensive Millecampi Valley, another example, really natural in this case, of this unique natural habitat typically Venetian, and Zappa Valley, with a striking building of Gothic style reminiscent of a Dutch hovel.
To visit the oasis you must arrange a visit with the Visitor Centre. The tour lasts approximately two hours, on the plain, with explanations regarding either its natural sides or the historical and ethnographic places.
Visitors may go through the different habitats moving among hydric wood, wet meadows, dikes and channels, up to viewpoints on the brackish lakes.
