Marecchia

Marecchia
Marecchia
Location
Country	Italy
Physical characteristics
Source
- location	Monte dei Frati in the Province of Arezzo
- elevation	1,454 m (4,770 ft)
Mouth	Adriatic Sea
- coordinates	44°04′35″N 12°33′48″E / 44.0763°N 12.5634°E
Length	70 km (43 mi)
Basin size	941 km2 (363 sq mi)
Discharge
- average	10.8 m3/s (380 cu ft/s) (at Pietracuta)

The Marecchia (Latin: Ariminus) is a river of the Emilia-Romagna region. The city of Rimini gets its name from the Latin name of the river.

Its low course marks the end of the Padan Plain (Italian: Pianura Padana).

Geography[change | change source]

The Marecchia river has a length of 70 km (43 mi), and a drainage basin with an area of approximately 500 km² (193 sq mi).^[1]

Its discharge (volume of water which passes through a section of the river per unit of time) depends of the season: in the autumn could be as high as 1,200 m³/s (42,000 cu ft/s) but is very low during summer. Most of the time, the discharge is about 11 m³/s (390 cu ft/s).

Course[change | change source]

The Marecchia river flows through a valley named after it, Valmarecchia. The river starts at about 1 km (0.6 mi) west of Viamaggio (comune of Pieve Santo Stefano) and about 4 km (2.5 mi) southwest of the comune of Badia Tedalda, in the province of Arezzo (Tuscany), in the Alpe della Luna at an elevation of 1,454 m (4,770.3 ft) above sea level.

At about 3 km (1.9 mi) to the northeast of Badia Tedalda, the river flows into the Emilia-Romagna region, in the Casteldelci comune, province of Rimini. Then it flows through Ca 'Raffaello, an exclave of Badia Tedalda; to the north of here, the Senatello river flows into the Marecchia as a left tributary. Later, in Ponte Masa, the Masa river flows from the right into the Marecchia.

Shortly after Torello, the San Marino river flows as a right tributary and, after the Verucchio comune, the Ausa flows also from the right.

Between the frazioni (Italian subdivisions of a municipality) of Rivabella and San Giuliano, in Rimini, the Marecchia river ends in the Adriatic Sea.

The Bridge of Tiberius (Italian: Ponte di Tiberio) or Bridge of Augustus (Latin: Pons Augustus) is a Roman bridge in Rimini. Its construction began in the times of Augustus but was finished in 20 AD in the times of Tiberius.