"Marcita" is the Italian word for water-meadow. It is also an ancient farming technique consisting in cutting the grass, covering it with backwater and letting it decompose in order to fertilise the meadow. From autumn to spring the "marcita" meadows in this area were covered by a thin layer of water from the Gorgazzo Spring.
The constant and relatively high water temperature of about 10° C protected crops from the rigours of the winter, preventing the soil from freezing and allowing plants to grow even during the cold months. This ancient technique, very common in the past, is sometimes still used today, allowing farmers to obtain abundant cuttings even in winter.
Unfortunately most of the water-meadows once in this area do not exist anymore, although some of them have been intentionally preserved in the San Floriano Park and can be visited by the public. According to historians, this farming technique was invented by the monks of Viboldone circa 1200 AD and subsequently refined a couple of centuries later by the Carthusian monks of Chiaravalle and Morimondo.
The "Acque molli" is a large wet area (as suggested by the Italian name) extending across small Alder woods, water-meadows, wet grasslands and pastures. It is particularly rich in outlets, Karst springs and small lakes with diameters ranging between a few centimetres and several metres, though only a few metres deep. Here you will find beautiful flowers and plants such as the Water Forget-me-not, the Watercress, the Carex and the Common Rush.
Acque molli together with Fosse da Rui and Riva Alta – a river bay characterised by backwaters, waterside brushes and oaks – are the only surviving examples of such a characteristic environment, which in the past was quite common throughout the whole area.
