The navigation begins from Bassanello, an important fluvial junction south of the city, at the point where the waters of Bacchiglione flow into the Scaricatore Canal, the youngest of the Padua canals, built in the nineteenth century and expanded in the twentieth century, to put an end to the disastrous floods of the city. The entrance to the Battaglia Canal and the Cavai Bridge are left behind, from which the main trunk detaches that enters the city, and the Scaricatore Canal is traversed until reaching the Navigational Basin of Voltabarozzo, an important hydraulic structure from the early twentieth century.
After passing through the lock, one navigates along the San Gregorio Canal until the point of confluence with the Piovego and enters the city beyond the San Gregorio Counter-support.
A suggestive and engaging route, in an atmosphere rich with suggestions in the early shadows of the evening, along the city’s waterways, while the tales of a bygone time and the stories of old trades intertwine with modernity and the significant urban changes that have occurred recently.
The impressive Venetian bastioned walls are skirted, among walls, bastions, and green floodplain areas, until reaching the Portello, with its monumental door and sixteenth-century landing, and finally continuing towards the Contarine Gates, where the docking is planned.
The Contarine Gates constitute the most significant hydraulic structure in the city and rise at the point where once the Internal Naviglio flowed into the Main Trunk of the Bacchiglione, a mandatory passage for boats leaving the city to head towards Venice.
