Adria, Ancient port town in Veneto Region, Italy
Adria is a municipality in the Province of Rovigo in Veneto, located between the Adige River and the Po, with modern buildings resting four meters (about 13 feet) above the remains of an Etruscan settlement. The town sits amid a plain crossed by canals, where fields and farmsteads shape the surrounding landscape.
Settlers from the Venetic people built stilt houses in the marshland before Etruscan traders founded a port city around 530 BC. Greek merchants later settled here, and Roman ships used the harbor until sediment deposits gradually shifted the coastline eastward.
The name comes from a Venetic or Etruscan word referring to dark water or marshland before being applied to the nearby sea. Visitors can see objects in the archaeological museum that document trade contacts between several ancient peoples.
The streets in the center are mostly flat and easy to walk, with the archaeological museum offering a good starting point for a walking tour. The surrounding countryside can be explored by bicycle, as flat paths run along the canals through the rural plain.
The present coastline lies 22 kilometers (about 14 miles) east of the original harbor after centuries of river deposits expanded the land. Despite this shift, the entire sea still bears the name of this town.
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