Lost trades of Romagna: sulphur miners, printers, sailors and salt workers

Sulphur, the Historical Mining Museum 75 min

Beneath the houses of Perticara lies a hidden city: more than a hundred kilometres of tunnels on nine levels, the sulphur mine that in 1938 employed over 1,600 people. The sulphur miners went down with carbide lamps, into the heat and dust, and the sulphur was used for gunpowder, matches and vineyard treatments. Foreign sulphur cost less and the seams were running out: the mine closed in 1964 and many families left. In the old works you'll find the power station, the lamp room where lamps were collected, the workshops and a reconstructed gallery; outside, the Vittoria shaft still dominates the village.

Open Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from April to November; on other days and in winter by appointment only: check and book ahead.

Stamperia Marchi and rust-printed cloth 35 min

Le tele stampate erano le tovaglie, le tende e le coperte dei buoi delle case contadine: le decoravano gli stampatori, con stampi di pero intagliati a mano e un colore color ruggine fatto con ferro, aceto e farina, che non va più via. Di quelle botteghe ne restano pochissime. Alla Stamperia Marchi si vedono gli stampi antichi, si guarda stampare una tela e si vede girare il mangano, una macchina di legno enorme con una grande ruota, in funzione dal 1633, che pressa, stende e liscia le stoffe prima della stampa.

Artisan workshop: check opening days; groups should give advance notice.

The Maritime Museum and lateen sails 45 min

In the oldest stretch of the canal harbour, the one designed by Leonardo da Vinci in 1502, float the working boats of the Adriatic: bragozzi, trabaccoli, launches. They were built by master shipwrights and made watertight by caulkers, with oakum and pitch; the sails were painted red and yellow with coloured earth and bore the family symbol, so from shore you could recognise who was coming in. The land section tells the story of fishing, the shipyards and the sailors' lives.

The sails are hoisted from Easter to autumn; the land section has seasonal opening times.

The ice stores 15 min

Before refrigerators, fish was kept fresh with ice collected in winter and stored in large covered pits dug underground, the 'conserve'. This too was a trade: cutting, carrying and packing the ice so it would last until summer. In Piazza delle Conserve one has been reconstructed and you can see what it was like inside.

MUSA, the Salt Museum 30 min

In the great Magazzino Torre of 1691 the salt was piled up before being loaded onto boats: thousands of tonnes. Today it houses MUSA, which tells the story of the salt workers' labour with wooden tools, photographs and the words of those who did it: the families who each worked their own piece of salt pan, the summer harvest, the salt carried on shoulders and on boats to the warehouses.

Seasonal opening times: check ahead.

The Camillone salt pan 60 min

Before 1959 the Cervia salt pan was divided into about 150 small family-run salt pans; then it was merged into a single large plant and the families' work ended. The Camillone is the only one left as it was: the volunteers of Civiltà Salinara, many of them former salt workers, harvest the salt by hand with wooden tools, using the method known as 'alla cervese'. The result is 'sweet salt', low in bitter salts, now a Slow Food Presidium. Around it the salt pan basins, with pink flamingos.

Free guided visits in summer (usually mid-June to mid-September, afternoons, on set days); on Tuesdays you can work with the salt workers by appointment: check the MUSA calendar.