Po River

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"Po" redirects here. For other uses, see Po (disambiguation).

Po
The Po river
Origin	Cottian Alps, Italy
Mouth	Adriatic Sea
Basin Countries	Italy, Switzerland
Length	652 km
Source Elevation
Avg. Discharge
Watershed Area	71,000 km²

The Po (Latin: Padus) flows 652 kilometers eastward across northern Italy, from Mount Monviso (in the Cottian Alps) to the Adriatic Sea near Venice. It has a drainage area of 71,000 square kilometers and is the longest river in Italy.

It goes through many important Italian towns, including Turin and (indirectly) Milan (Milano), in Lombardia. It is connected to Milan through a net of channels called navigli, that Leonardo da Vinci helped designing. Near the end of its course, it creates a wide delta (with hundreds of small channels and five main ones, called Po di Maestra, Po della Pila, Po delle Tolle, Po di Gnocca and Po di Goro) at the southern part of which is Comacchio, an area famous for eels. The Po valley corresponds to historical Cisalpine Gaul, divided in Cispadane Gaul (South of the Po) and Transpadane Gaul (North of the Po).

The vast valley around the Po is called Pianura Padana and is so efficiently connected by the river that the whole valley became the main industrial area of the country. This river is subject to the authority of a special authority, the Magistrato delle Acque.

In 2005, water from the Po was found to contain "staggering" amounts of benzoylecgonine, which is excreted by cocaine users in urine. Based on these figures, cocaine consumption was estimated to be about 4 kg daily, or 27 doses per day per thousand young adults in areas that feed into the river--a number nearly three times higher than previous estimates.[1]

Tributaries include (R form the right side, L form the left):