Comacchio & the Po Delta | 4-Day Self-Drive from Bologna

Bologna is one of Italy's great food cities, so it's a fine place to start. Pick up your hire car at the airport and head north-east — within an hour the motorway gives way to flat, open countryside, the sky grows wide, and you arrive in Comacchio. It's a small town built on a network of islands and canals, often compared to Venice but far quieter and completely unpretentious. Life here moves at its own pace, and that's exactly the point.

With three nights based here you have real time to settle in. Wander the Trepponti — the town's iconic five-arched bridge — in the early morning before the day begins, then follow the canal paths out towards the lagoon. The Po Delta stretches around you in every direction: a vast, hazy landscape of water, reed beds, and sky that changes colour by the hour. It's one of Italy's most important wetlands and a haven for birdlife, including thousands of pink flamingos that feed in the lagoon shallows. Hire a bike, join a boat trip, or simply drive the quiet roads that thread through it all.

Eating well is easy here. Comacchio has been fishing these waters for centuries, and the local eel and seafood tradition is something you won't find anywhere else quite like this. The small trattorias around the canals keep it simple and seasonal — that's what makes it good. At the end of your stay, the drive back to Bologna Airport is straightforward, leaving you with nothing to think about except which dishes you'd order again.