FROM THE CENTRE TO THE SAL PAN
The Tower of San Michele marks the starting point of the trail, which can be walked or cycled, to discover the city of salt and sea. Each leg of the CerviaSale- CerviaMare trail is accompanied by explanatory panels that provide interesting information on the location, a kids’ game with the pirate Jack Salino and a tactile Braille board. The CerviaSale trail crosses the historical town centre, highlighting the most important sites connected with its history and identity of salt, such as the Quadrilateral and Piazza Pisacane with the Old Fishmonger’s (now a commercial business) and the measure stone, the Cathedral and the Salt Warehouses, and reaches the Salt pan Visitor Centre of Cervia, a former slaughterhouse, now the starting point for the guided tours of the Cervia Salt pan. The CerviaMare trail winds along Borgo Marina and stops off at the places connected with the seafaring tradition, like the lighthouse and the area of the colonies.
CAMILLONE SALT PAN
The Camillone salt pan is the only basin managed according to the traditional artisan method after the other basins were joined into a single production system. Here, from June to September each year, the custom of collecting salt is repeated, which transforms it into an open-air museum. The sweet salt of the Camillone Salt pan attained the status of “Presidio Slow Food” in 2004. To reach Camillone depart the Salt pan Visitor Centre of Cervia in the company of a guide and travel along a short section of the effluent canal to reach a small pumping station; the path to the right leads to Camillone. The old artisan salt pan can also be reached from Via Cervese, a short distance before the junction between Via Cervese and the Adriatic trunk road.
OLD CERVIA
After the pumping station, proceed straight on along the path to reach the place where Old Cervia arose. Along the trail several explanatory panels describe the history of Cervia and the Salt pan, and on the right you can see the industrial salt plants which have been operating since 1959. A little further on you can catch a glimpse of the old thermal baths used until 1960, when the thermal centre of Milano Marittima was inaugurated. The trail crosses many basins having different levels of salinity, which in late summer are an intense red colour due to the presence of a single-celled alga (Dunaliella Salina). At the bottom of the road, you enter the area where Old Cervia arose until 1697. The only remaining building associated with that period is the former 17th century Church of Madonna della Neve, which is now a private residence.
THE SALT MUSEUM
Located inside the “Torre” Salt Warehouse, the MUSA with its collection of documents, equipment and photos associated to the environment and production of salt offers a slice of the history of Cervia which keeps alive the memory of the work in the Salt pan. The Salt Museum was created thanks to the passion and the desire to preserve a cultural heritage which is very important for the city. In the second half of the 1980s the former salt worker Agostino Finchi got together with a group of passionate people, today working together in the Gruppo Culturale Civiltà Salinara (Salt pan Cultural and Civilization Group), to recover the material connected to the history of the Salt pan and fit out a permanent exhibition at the Salt Warehouses. The museum is currently part of the Museum System of the province of Ravenna; it has obtained the qualification of Quality Museum of the Emilia-Romagna Region and it is the driving force behind the brand new Salt and Sea Ecomuseum of Cervia, a “diffused museum” under development, which has the purpose of further enhancing the culture and tradition of the city. The MUSA is a well-known and appreciated museum and enjoys a large number of visitors each year.
