Ancient Salt Flats of Italy

I recently went to visit Cervia, the oldest remaining salt flats on the mainland of Italy, in the region of Emilia Romagna. Up on the east coast, sandwiched between the ancient town of Ravenna with its amazing Byzantine mosaics (more on that next blog!) and the chic beach town of Rimini with its discos and crowded beaches, Cervia is a quiet marsh that has been used for salt production since the Etruscan times, several hundred years before the Romans.

Less than 800 yards inland, the salt flats produce a beautiful, sweet white salt that is hand-raked and evaporated in the full sun of the summer. During the summer months, June to September, water from the sea is fed by canals into large, shallow flats, and allowed to concentrate until it is more than 75% saltier than seawater. Only one of the original 150 salt flats remains, but it is still possible to see the locals raking and drying the salt in the sun, and you can purchase sacks of the white, moist salt at the visitor center.

Salt is getting a bad rap these days, and unjustly so. It is the only mineral that we eat and it’s the one ingredient that is common among all the cuisines of the world. Salt is crucial to our survival and has been the source of unrest and wars throughout our history.

Sea salt is a whole food made not of just sodium but also a myriad of minerals like calcium, magnesium and potassium, and trace minerals like selenium, boron and iodine. When salt is processed (kosher, table salt) all the other minerals are taken out and just sodium remains. An anti-caking agent is then added. Industrially processed salt can lead to a state of imbalance in the body, which in turns leads to disease.