Ivrea è

Water

The art of living on water

Ivrea and water are inseparable. Just think: the glacier shaped the morainic amphitheater at whose heart the city stands; the Dora Baltea is the river that not only flows through Ivrea, but both divides and unites it; and glacial lakes surround the city like a crown, to the delight of both its residents and those who come to discover it. The result is a landscape of bridges, rapids, sandy shores, canals, footbridges, turbines, mills, boats, gravel banks, riverbanks, waterside promenades, washhouses, pedal boats, canoes, diving boards and quays. And all of this, of course, at the foot of the mountains.

Discover the places

Dora Baltea

Canoe Stadium

Naviglio di Ivrea

“Natale Capellaro” Footbridge

Lakes

Borghetto and Ponte Vecchio

Peat Bogs and “The Dancing Lands”

Pons Maior and the River Port

Dora Baltea

Ivrea is a river city, and it owes the Dora Baltea a great deal: its very founding, a significant part of its economic vitality across the centuries, and, not least, many of the compliments it receives every day from those who discover, or rediscover, its beauty.

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Canoe Stadium

The Canoe Stadium is one of Ivrea's proudest achievements, placing the city in the international spotlight: both for the quality of the sporting facility itself, and for the fact that it sits right in the heart of the city — something entirely unique. From here, too, the "città turrita" can be admired in all its beauty.

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Naviglio di Ivrea

The deep, inextricable bond between the city and water is also borne out by one of the region's most important hydraulic works: the Naviglio di Ivrea. It runs for some 75 kilometres from Ivrea to Vercelli, and is one of the most significant legacies of medieval Ivrea. A waterway that, albeit tangentially, has brushed against the names of two rather resounding figures in history: Leonardo da Vinci and Napoleon Bonaparte.

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"Natale Capellaro" Footbridge

This elegant structure, long dreamed of since the last century, is a footbridge where you do not simply pass through: you stop, and take in Ivrea at its most characteristic — its setting. Draped along the Dora, at the point where the lines of the mountains and the Anfiteatro Morenico converge, the city reveals itself in all its grace.

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Lakes

This landscape was shaped by the great Balteo Glacier, which over the course of the last ice ages carved out the deep basins now occupied by Lake Sirio, San Michele, Pistono, Campagna and Nero. Lake Sirio in particular — framed by moraine hills, by the Castello di Montalto, and by the small settlements reflected in its waters — remains a much-loved destination, especially among the young.

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Borghetto and Ponte Vecchio

For century after century, the city remained huddled behind its imposing walls on the high ground, with the exception of a few outlying settlements. Above all, the Borghetto — a small, proudly self-contained world that accepts union with only one thing: the Ponte Vecchio. Water, rock, houses and history together paint the picture.

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Peat Bogs and "The Dancing Lands"

Water is, once again, the protagonist. It makes possible two phenomena, one of which is genuinely spectacular. The first are the "Peat Bogs": especially damp places that, over an immensely long span of time, have built up a precious organic substance. The second are the "Terre Ballerine," the Dancing Lands: an elastic surface layer of peat and roots, on which all it takes is a jump to set the trees dancing.

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Pons Maior and the River Port

An ancient story that today almost feels like a fairy tale. Water made it possible, water erased it, and water brought it back to light. It could hardly have been otherwise for a river city. It tells the story of one of the greatest river ports of its time and of a magnificent bridge that challenged the Dora at its most formidable.

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