Oasis of Cà Mello

The Ca' Mello Oasis is located on the Donzella Island in the southern part of the Po Delta and overlooks the Sacca degli Scardovari, the largest lagoon in the Delta. This area lies within the boundaries of the Regional Park and is a Site of Community Importance (SCI). Since 1999, it has been managed by Veneto Agricoltura.

It is a wetland included in a wider naturalistic area of about 150 hectares, of great scenic value, which includes: the Ca' Mello Oasis, i.e. the marshy legacy of the mouth of the canal of the same name; the Bonello biotope, the remnant of an ancient fishing valley where interesting aquaculture techniques are now practised; the Donzella wood, which represents one of the most extensive forestation interventions implemented with its 80 hectares of extension; and the Cassella Pinewood area.

The Oasis encompasses a marshland basin of about 30 hectares of fresh water sandwiched between predominantly brackish environments. It spreads over the area once occupied by the mouth of the ancient Ca' Mello branch of the Po, which, until the 19th century, detached from the Po di Venezia to flow into the Sacca degli Scardovari.

The routes of the Oasis can be travelled on foot or by bicycle and proceed among dense reed thickets and aquatic plants whose flowers enliven, in the different seasons, a landscape to be explored, or among the edges of the woods where it is easy to find traces of the animals present. Everywhere there are birds of numerous species, which have found an ideal environment here for migration, feeding and reproduction.