The Ticino River rises in the Alps of southern Switzerland and flows through northern Italy. It is the main tributary of the Po River and the second Italian river in terms of water flow. The river measures a total of 248 km in length and is considered one of the healthiest rivers in Italy. Here, it is also called “the blue river” due to the colour of its pure waters, whose white submerged pebbles brightly reflect the colour of the sky. Its basin is protected by two regional parks, the Lombardy Ticino Valley Park, created in 1974, and the Ticino Valley Natural Park, established in 1978. The course of the Ticino is divided into three parts: the mountain part (upper Ticino), which flows in Swiss territory; Lake Maggiore (between Switzerland and Italy); and the flat part (lower Ticino).
The confluence with the Po River is located in the province of Pavia, on the border with the Emilia-Romagna region. Many cities, villages, agricultural areas, and bridges have arisen along the Ticino, and its basin includes artificial and natural canals and oxbow lakes. The Naviglio, a navigable canal designed by Leonardo da Vinci, also ends up in the Ticino in the medieval city of Pavia. In Roman times, this city was called Ticinum. It is the most representative of the symbiotic bond (ecological, cultural and historical) between the Ticino and the human and non-human populations that live along its course. Not only commercial and cultural exchanges and economic activities (fishing, hunting and agriculture) and entertainment (bathing, kayaking, boat racing) have alternated along the banks of the river and within its waters over the centuries and millennia, but also periodic floods, seasonal animal (especially birds) migrations and settlements, war events, religious events, miraculous and legendary episodes.
In Pavia and its surroundings, there are dozens of associations and citizens’ initiatives to protect the ecosystem and eco-cultural heritage of the “blue river”. In fact, as environmentalists have been denouncing for decades, in this area, the river is seriously threatened by pollution resulting from the mismanagement of the upstream metropolitan areas’ water basins, whose canals and streams constantly pour contaminated water into the Ticino blue waters.