It is the longest river in Italy and it gives the name to one of its richest areas, the Pianura Padana,  but the Po, especially for the people who live along its banks, from Piemonte to Emilia Romagna, it’s much more than that. It’s livelihood and fertility; it’s wealth and happiness; it’s history and family. It’s memories and future at once. It is a human, economic, natural, and historical treasure.

The Romans called it Padus, the Ligurians Bodincus, the Greeks Pàdos. Great cities were born throughout the centuries thanks to its presence, including Turin, Piacenza and Cremona, once Roman colonies or, in the case of the first, military settlements. In its Naturalis Historia, Pliny the Elder wrote that you could, in fact, sail the Po from Turin, in Piedmont, all the way to the sea.