Paullo: Water Landscape, Cycling Tour and Rice Festival

Paullo combines water management, rural landscapes, sacred art and a strong rice culture to create a destination with several facets worth exploring. If you would like to discover Italy beyond the major cityscapes, historic places, waterways and local traditions come together here. The character of the town is particularly evident at the Casa dell’Acqua, on the Paullo cycling tour and in the churches and works of art that tell the story of the town’s religious and architectural development.

Water, Canals and a Green Landscape

The Casa dell’Acqua is a cultural and educational centre located at the site of the hydraulic control station of the Consorzio Bonifica Muzza Bassa Lodigiana in Paullo. Cultural, educational and general information activities take place there, serving to convey an understanding of the area’s water culture as well as its rural and hydrological features. The hydraulic control station has presumably been an important hub for regulating water inflows in the Canale Muzza and the Addetta drainage canal since the 13th century, and continues to fulfil this function today. This helps make sense of a part of the landscape shaped by canals, irrigation and agricultural areas.

Paullo’s connection with nature also includes the Forestami project on the former site of the Cascina Tombona. The area covers 4,395 square metres and has been transformed into a woodland. The site thus represents both traces of its former use and a newly created forest area within the municipality.

Cycling Through the Plain

The Paullo cycling tour begins and ends at the Punto Parco Casa dell’Acqua in Paullo. It runs along the shore of Lago Gerundo and beside the irrigation ditches of the Lodi plain. Along the way, it offers insights into the rural landscape of the Parco Agricolo Sud Milano. This gives you the opportunity to experience waterways and agriculture not separately, but as parts of one interconnected landscape.

The planned activities at the Casa dell’Acqua include guided cycling and walking excursions along the towpaths of the Canale Muzza, with educational stops and tastings of products from the park. The planned combination of exercise, explanations of the landscape and regional produce therefore appeals to different interests without taking the water environment out of the focus.

Sacred Architecture and Art in Paullo

The Santuario di Santa Maria in Pratello has a single-nave interior with a vault decorated with panels and raised flowers. It also features a portal with columns and statues, as well as a bell tower proportionate to the building’s design. The Santuario forms part of a religious settlement context in Paullo documented since the 12th century. Architecture, spatial character and local history can therefore be considered closely together here.

The Chiesa dei Santi Quirico e Giulitta also reflects the development of the town: in 1584, it was a parish with the title of a rectorate parish. The Chiesa di San Tarcisio provides a much more recent architectural accent. It was built in the 1970s as part of a residential neighbourhood, based on a design by the architect Gianfranco Andreoni.

Among the works of art in Paullo is a carved, painted and gilded wooden Madonna con Bambino, dated to between 1590 and 1610. For visitors interested in culture, this creates an impression that is not limited to a single period, but connects sacred design and local history across several centuries.

Rice as a Local Expression

Paullo has committed itself to celebrating the Carnaroli rice produced in the town every year. El dì de la festa is Paullo’s traditional rice festival. The 2026 edition was organised in Parco Muzza by the Pro Loco and the municipality and comprised three days of demonstrations, concerts and sporting activities. Rice culture is therefore not only part of the landscape of the Lodi plain, but also shapes a specific local festival.

Further destinations: Dresano, Linate, Buccinasco, Cinisello Balsamo, Bollate, Bellinzago Lombardo, Cologno Monzese, Castano Primo

For the overarching travel overview: Milan.