18. Polesella – Ferrara

Short and easy stage, along the river Po. From Veneto you enter Emilia-Romagna through a long busy bridge.

Polesella is the last municipality in the Veneto before the great Po and the border with Emilia-Romagna. You then leave this beautiful flat town by crossing the long bridge over the Po. There is a ladder to climb up from the embankment, but it could be closed. Similarly in the Emilian part to go down the bank. In Emilia you enter the Municipality of Ro (cyclists must follow the road to avoid the stairs). The landscape is by no means monotonous if you know how to look carefully at the great river as it flows, if you know how to observe the bank with its clearings, its woods and the countryside below. On the left there are numerous inhabited centers more or less distant from the embankment. A small road takes you to Sabbioni and Fossa d’Albero. Then, along the embankment, is the small center of Pescara, where there is a fountain in front of the first house. Then you leave the Po river for good, cross Francolino; after a while the road is flanked by an excellent cycle path for about 6 km. Following other cycle paths in the green countryside, you reach the walls of Ferrara. You go to the Certosa area and, going almost in a straight line, you arrive in the historic center and the Castle of Ferrara.