PADUS, BODINCUS AND ERIDANUS
This was how the Po river was termed by Virgilio, who following an ancient legend, considered its source as being in a laurel forest in Campi Elisi (Champs Elysées). Whilst in fact the river which extends for 652 km is the longest in Italy, originating at a height of 2020 metres in the Pian del Re, at the foot of the Monviso, and after crossing the plains named after it, it flows in the Adriatic sea, like a large delta. Mythical origins are attributed to the forests which are found along its banks: Phaethon tried driving his father’s wagon, his father being the Sun, but not being skilled enough he came too near the earth, and would have burnt it, if Jupiter had not have made it fall into the Eridano with a bolt of lighting, while on the banks, his weeping sisters, the Eliads, were transformed into poplar trees.