Valle Millecampi & the Southern Lagoon Wetlands
Immediately south of Chioggia's island, the Valle Millecampi is a brackish lagoon valley managed as a nature reserve — a flat, luminous world of reed beds, fish-farming basins and mudflats that hosts flamingos, avocets, black-winged stilts and, in winter, tens of thousands of migrating waterfowl. It is one of the least-visited corners of the entire Venice Lagoon system.
The landscape and wildlife
The valley covers roughly 800 hectares of transitional wetland between the Adriatic barrier and the mainland. In spring and autumn migration seasons the skies fill with waders and wildfowl; greater flamingos — now a permanent fixture in the northern Adriatic — stalk the shallows in improbably pink groups of fifty or more.
The flat light that bounces off the water surface at dawn creates a photographer's dream: silhouetted herons against a pale pink sky, reflections of reed beds in perfectly still water, the distant profile of Chioggia's campanile on the horizon.
Getting there and exploring
The easiest access is by bicycle from Chioggia along the cycle path that runs south along the Brenta Riviera towards Sottomarina and then turns inland. Several unpaved tracks lead into the reserve from the SS309 Romea road, though a guide is worthwhile for reaching the best hides.
The cooperative Ca' Roman, on the barrier island of Pellestrina just across the inlet, offers guided birdwatching tours of both the Millecampi valley and the Ca' Roman nature reserve at the island's southern tip — book ahead in peak migration season.
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