The best traffic-free bike rides around Cava Manara

This beautiful oxbow lake welcomes the visitor to the Palustre Park, it has an almost circular shape and excellent dimensions. In the lake there are carp (mirror, queens, common, black, koi) amur, crucian carp, and sometimes even pike. The carp population is very numerous, especially small ones up to 1 kg, while there are fish that reach 20 kg. Fishing with bread and float you often encounter the largest weights, with an easy probability of running into amur up to 3-8 kg. The predominant technique is fishing with a fixed rod with a float,

Along the embankment on asphalt, watch out for potholes

According to legend, some pilgrims wanted to attend midnight mass in the city on Christmas Eve in 999, but due to the thick fog their boats could not cross the river. Suddenly, a man dressed in red arrived and promised that he would immediately build a bridge in exchange for the first soul to cross the bridge. The man in red was the devil, and only the Archangel Michael, who had come from the nearby church, recognized him. Michael pretended to agree to the deal, but once the bridge was built, a goat crossed it first. The bridge is therefore also known as the Ponte del Diavolo ("Devil's Bridge").

The covered bridge has its origins in Roman times. The current one was constructed in the 14th century and covered in 1583. Upstream of the bridge you can still see pillars of the original bridge, reconstructed after the Second World War. A memorial stone on the bridge tells that Albert Einstein stayed in Pavia for several months and loved the place.

Casoni served as one of the main locations for the shooting of the famous 1984 film “Il ragazzo di campagna”, directed by Castellano and Pipolo and starring Renato Pozzetto.

Very large, covered bridge of Pavia…

The Covered Bridge connects the historic center of Pavia to Borgo Ticino. The first bridge at this point was built by order of Emperor Augustus and was replaced in the 14th century by a covered bridge. Due to the damage suffered by the Allied bombings during the Second World War, one of the arches of the fourteenth-century bridge collapsed and it was decided to demolish the entire structure. The new bridge was inaugurated in 1951; on the entrance portal on the city side, in memory of past events, a plaque was placed reading: "On the ancient passage of the cerulean Ticino, in the image of the ancient Covered Bridge, demolished by the fury of war, the Italian Republic rebuilt it".

The Covered Bridge, also known as Ponte Vecchio, crosses the Ticino River and connects the historic center of Pavia with the characteristic Borgo Ticino district, originally located outside the peripheral walls of the city. The neighborhood was traditionally inhabited by washermen, scree workers and fishermen. The bridge, symbol of Pavia, is particular, with its five arches, entirely covered by a structure, and equipped with two portals at its ends. Also, there is a small chapel in the middle of the bridge. The current Ponte Coperto was built between 1949 and 1951 and reflects the characteristics of the ancient Ponte Coperto dating back to the 14th century, which in turn had replaced the ancient Roman bridge (whose columns are still visible today).