Italian white gold

The sodium chloride (NaCl), more or less rich in impurities partly eliminable by washing and refining operations, is one of the most common salts on our Planet , forming the base of sea water. The man and the animals, being composed of over 80% salt water, are rich and have to take regular amounts, especially through food, to supplement their losses. For this reason there is no superior living organism that can do without salt, so since prehistoric times, we sought, produced and traded such an important asset, considered as precious as gold, so much to be used by the early Roman kings to pay soldiers (the term Salary comes from the Latin word salarium, which also means "salary" and has the root sal, or "salt."").

It is then possible to imagine that the first salt production had been organized by the puddle collection from the sea, when the sun and the wind dried up the water leaving the salt deposited on the bottom. This process is in fact the base technique used in sea salt mines, formed by a series of huge shallow basins and connected to each other in which seawater evaporates rapidly. Around these main mirrors there are often other basins, always more or less with brackish waters, born as drainage areas or the result of initial interventions then not completed, where a specific vegetation settles, creating peculiar ecosystems.

Nowadays, there are almost a dozen Italian salt mines clearly identifiable, but only four of them are still industrially active (S.Antioco, Trapani, S. Margherita of Savoia and Cervia). Surely in the past there were more numerous as we can guess from interesting historical testimonies. In practice, almost every major seaside town had its salt-water: from Siracusa to Rome (Ostia), from Venice to Trieste, where the Grand Canal is what remains today of the old salt mines of the city, buried in 1732. All Italian salt mines, and in particular those that are no longer active, have become wetlands of national interest just for naturalistic aspects; not by accident almost all are within sites of Community interest (SIC), special protection zones (SPAs) or important bird areas (IBAs). Most of them are now protected within national parks, regional parks or natural reserves. Their environmental value is highlighted by the presence of particular botanical species, animals (especially birds) and brackish habitats. All this blends with landscaping and anthropic aspects that make these unique environments nationwide.

Travelling around our peninsula you can discover realities that are sometimes little-known but rich in history, places where you can still find special salt qualities very different from each other.