Il fiume Mincio e le Colline Moreniche

The water of the Mincio river flows for 73 kilometers through different territories – from the morainic hills of the lower Garda to the plain that accompanies the river to its confluence with the Po – dotted with emblematic naturalistic testimonies.
The Mincio river originates in Pinzolo (TN), with the name of Sarca, from the confluence of several sources that originate from some massifs such as the Brenta, the Adamello and the Presanella and along the Val Rendeva for approx. Km. 78 you enter Lake Garda near Riva di Trento. It leaves the lake with the name of Mincio and crossing the sweet beauty of the morainic landscape, passing through the territory of Ponti sul Mincio, it heads towards Mantua to form the three lakes that surround it, concluding its journey of 75 km in the Po.
The stretch of the river in the territory of Ponti sul Mincio is integrated into a complex water system and aimed at dividing the outflow of the river itself in a network of canals destined for different functions: irrigation, energy, hydraulic defense. The overall length, which also includes Lake Garda for 41 km, measures 194 km and thus places it in the eleventh place among the longest rivers in Italy.
The Mincio river and its hinterland, in the province of Mantua, is a protected area of ​​the Mincio Regional Park.
The Mincio River Agricultural Park was established in 1984 by the Lombardy Region.
The Mincio flows channeled within narrow artificial embankments up to the height of Salionze, a place that legend indicates as the point where Pope San Leone I stopped Attila and his hordes. – The landscape, before and after the dam, is marked by variety of soft and green reliefs with basins that have become swampy and peaty deposits and a very particular flora and fauna.
These hilly formations are the remains of the grandiose frontal moraines which, in the moments of maximum expansion (2 million years ago) the Benacense glacier pushed towards the Mantuan plain below. In the municipality of Ponti the most important morainic arch, called “Monte della Guardia”, overlooks two small peat bogs, still well preserved and with rich hygrophilous vegetation.
The vegetation of the hill has a significant naturalistic interest. On the north-facing slopes grow thickets consisting mainly of downy oak and black hornbeam. In the undergrowth there are the hawthorn, the evonymus, the coronilla, the butcher’s broom and in spring the periwinkle, the anemones, the liverwort and the rare red lily blossom. On the south-facing slopes the forest thins out to give way to particular natural environments, arid meadows with beautiful spring blooms. There are many botanical species that appear in this particular environment: we remember, for the extreme rarity and the particular scientific interest, the orchids and the pulsatilla montana.
Ponti sul Mincio is one of the 13 Municipalities of the Mincio Regional Park that protects and enhances the territory of the protected area and has joined the Colline Moreniche del Garda Association which is responsible for developing the tourist and cultural activity of the morainic territory.