Italy is branching into the touring canal tradition, so famous in the Netherlands and France, with tours available on the canals of Lombardy.
The project to restore a canal that links Italy’s Lake Maggiore with Milan is well underway, completing a waterway that was in operation in the 1900’s.
Dams and blockages constructed over the years will be overcome using other closures and basins, creating a kind of lift for boat access.
The aim is not to transport marble and sand as in the old days, but to create a tourist venture to travel over a network of canals that will enable tours of Lake Maggiore, and the Ticino, to arrive at the Grand Canal in Milan, Naviglio.
Over the last couple of years an exhibition called Via col Marmo has been running, on the old way of transporting marble (used to construct Milan’s Duomo and Arco della Pace) from the caves at Candoglia to Milan.
If everything goes according to plan, that old marble waterway will be open from 2010 for tourism.