Cervia’s sea Itinerary
"Imagina Cervia" is an app which, thanks to special devices scattered throughout the city, allows you to get to know Cervia in an innovative way. As in a treasure hunt, walking through the center and crossing the city, you will be able to meet stories and characters linked to our traditions.
This is the part dedicated to the sea. Each point is a piece of our navy which, like in a mosaic, is able to evoke the soul of the fishing vil-lage.
1) Church S. Antonio
Inside the church there is a beautiful collection of "ex voto", small tablets, on wood or canvas, dating back to the 19th century and offered to the Saints as thanks for having escaped danger.
2) Saltwarehouse “Darsena” – The Salt route
Built in 1712, the Darsena salt warehouse was intend-ed for the stowage of salt and the weighing of sacks for sale. From here the traditional festival of the Salt Route starts in which the historic boats transport the white gold to the Serenissima.
3) Historical fishing boats – Tenza di Cervia
In ancient times, the “Tenze” were the squeri, or slip-ways for docking and launching boats. Nowadays the “Tenza di Cervia” is the association that wants to promote the study of the traditions of sailing and is based in the port.
4) Borgo Marina – Fishing village
Between XIX and XX century the village was born with the typical houses built close to the right bank of the canal port by families of fishermen coming mostly from Chioggia and the coastal cities of the Po Delta. In the first decades of its history it took the form of a separated from the "city of salt", but over the years the integration will contribute to the economic life of Cervia.
5) Bellini Family
The family was in the timber business and had trade with Croatia. It possessed a large transport lugger with which to trade timber for construction and firewood.
6) Sea writers
Cervia boasts a poetic and literary tradition linked to the sea, as evidenced by the choice of its honorary cit-izens: Grazia Deledda, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Mario Luzi and Roberto Vecchioni. Even the writer from Cervia Carlo Nava dedicated his verses to the sea.
7) Fish market
Made by the will of the Municipality in 1979 to regu-late the fish sale in compliance with health and hy-giene standards. You can admire the marble counters with grooves for water drainage.
8) Fishermen club “La Pantofla”
The "La Pantofla" Association was born as an aggre-gation of fishermen's families with the aim of recover-ing and enhancing the traditions linked to the sea. Its motto is: "A sea that unites - history, traditions, gas-tronomy". Of prestige is the restoration and enhance-ment of the historical spear “Maria”.
9) Fishermen cooperative
The need to face common problems and experiences led to the establishment of a Mutual Aid Society in 1911. Dedicated to Luigi Penso, a Cervia fisherman who tragically died at sea.
10) Ancient lighthouse
Built in 1875 by Ferdinando Forlivesi and positioned about 300 meters from the San Michele Tower, which also served as the first lighthouse in Cervia. Its ap-pearance has remained more or less intact with 16 m. high and a luminous range of 14 miles.
The fixed white light then became intermittent, to distinguish it from the ever-increasing glare of public lighting. To-day it is replaced by two electronic lights.
11) Fisherman’s house
Sartini’s house, built in 1908, had a large bedroom, albeit insufficient for all the members of the family, a kitchen with a fireplace and a door directly onto the quay where the nets paraded to be fixed.
12) Ferry boat
Active since the Thirties to serve an already started tourist season. A simple battana, equipped with a can-opy, with wooden shelves for sitting, guaranteed the connection between Cervia and Milano Marittima, to-day carried out by a more modern means.
13) Touristical Port
It is an important reality for the city and helps to ex-pand its tourist offer with various services for boaters. It is here that in the 1960s the well-known Fellinian "vitelloni" (guys) of the Riviera met.
14) Shipwrights
The work of the Shipwright, the one who for centuries has been shaping wood to make it into an unsinkable boat, is to be considered a real art even before a trade. A job born to create or repair small fishing boats soon became the cradle of pleasure boats.
15) Huts on the pier
The fishing huts on the pier have always been a sym-bol of the identity of the sea and fishing. Places of tra-dition, the first to greet the fishing boats and other boats that enter and leave the port every day.
16) Boat trips
The first tourist boats departed from the canal in the 1960s. It required a lot of experience and great skill in raising the rudder without losing manoeuvrability.
17) Fishing Huts
At the beginning of the century the fishing huts of-fered the possibility to the salt workers to increase their livelihood and a small trade. In fishing with the balance beam, the net was operated with pulleys or simple hand winches.
18) Camillone Salt-pan
Last of the active salt pans until 1959, when the pro-duction system became mechanized and they were merged into large evaporation and collection tanks. It can produce from 500 to 2,000 quintals of salt per season.
19) Pinarella and Tagliata’s pinewood
It houses the park of the natural rights of girls and boys. By transforming the slowness of nature into a resource, six sensory islands have been installed with play-installations that can be used by children in all seasons. The installations are inspired by the UN Con-vention on the Rights of the Child and designed in close relationship with the natural environment.
20) Marine Colonies
From a primitive connotation of nursing homes, the marine colonies of Pinarella and Tagliata became, af-ter the war, structures dedicated to children to strengthen and play during the summer.