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Lido di Volano is a seaside locality, located in the municipality of Comacchio. It is the northernmost of the seven beaches of Comacchio, the nearest to Delta del Po and so the most interesting from a naturalistic point view. Together with the beach, Lido di Volano posses a wide pine wood of 169 hectares which is part of Riserva Naturale Statale Po di Volano; the pine wood extends itself towards the South for 6 km between the inhabited centre, the  Lago delle Nazioni and the sea till the locality of Bocca del Bianco. Because of its isolated position and major wind-sea current exposure, the Lido has become a point of reference for kite surfers, windsurfers and for all the people practicing sailing sports.

Riserva Naturale Statale Po di Volano

Riserva Naturale Po di Volano is a sandy shore of recent formation, which was created by the progressive deposit of marine sands on the underlying alluvial sediments of the Po basin; together with other clayish deposits of fluvial origins. The forest sector is made of coastal pine wood of artificial origin, which is composed mainly of conifers (Pinus pinea), (Pinus pinaster) and broadleaved trees like (Quercus ilex), (Quercus robur), (Fraxinus oxycarpae), (Populus alba). In some areas, it is still possible to identify the preexisting vegetation, typical of ridges of  coastal sand dunes, of dunes’ depressions, of prairies without bushes or sandy soils, which are affected by the seasonal influence of the groundwater. In the reserve, it is possible to encounter typical formations of the area such Mediterranean salty steppes; the lawns of Spartina (Spartinion maritimae); the coastal Laguna, the mobile embryonic dunes; the pioneer annual vegetation (Salicornia) (particularly (Salicornia veneta)); the annual vegetation of marine deposit lines; the Mediterranean flooded pastures (made of (Juncetalia maritimi)) ; the dunes with forests of  (Pinus pinea) and/or (Pinus pinaster); the gallery forests of (Salix alba) and (Populus alba); the mobile dunes of the coastal ridges  with (Ammophila arenaria) ; sandbanks with a weak complete cover of sea water; the wet, Mediterranean prairies with high herbaceous plants.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)