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Po near Turin   In relation to European rivers, Italy does not have large watercourses in terms of length, this is because the country is closed to the north by the Alps and never has a large extension; the Po still crosses it from west to east for a good part of its largest portion, including the Po Valley.

   Almost all the major Italian watercourses flow entirely in the country, the only exception being the Ticino which originates in Switzerland; between the fourth and the seventh place we find only tributaries of the Po.

   Among the rivers that have only a short stretch in the Italian peninsula we have the Isonzo in its final section and the Drava which with 749 km, of which only the initial 10 in South Tyrol, is the longest river to interest the Italian territory.


River Length (km) Length (mi) Mouth Regions
Drava (1) 749 km 465 mi Danube Trentino-South Tyrol
Po (2) 652 km 405 mi Adriatic Sea Piedmont, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto
Adige 410 km 255 mi Adriatic Sea Trentino-South Tyrol, Veneto
Tiber (3) 405 km 252 mi Tyrrhenian Sea Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Umbria, Lazio
Adda 313 km 194 mi Po Lombardy
Oglio 280 km 174 mi Po Lombardy
Tànaro (4) 276 km 171 mi Po Liguria, Piedmont, Lombardy
Ticino (5) 248 km 154 mi Po Switzerland, Piedmont, Lombardy
Arno 241 km 150 mi Ligurian Sea Tuscany
Piave 231 km 144 mi Adriatic Sea Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Veneto
Reno 211 km 131 mi Adriatic Sea Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna
Sarca-Mincio (6) 194 km 121 mi Po Trentino-South Tyrol, Veneto, Lombardy
Volturno 175 km 109 mi Tyrrhenian Sea Molise, Campania
Brenta 174 km 108 mi Adriatic Sea Trentino-South Tyrol, Veneto
Secchia 172 km 107 mi Po Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy
Ofanto 170 km 106 mi Adriatic Sea Campania, Basilicata, Apulia
Tagliamento 170 km 106 mi Adriatic Sea Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Dora Baltea 168 km 104 mi Po Aosta Valley, Piedmont
Chiese 160 km 99 mi Oglio Trentino-South Tyrol, Lombardy
Ombrone 160 km 99 mi Tyrrhenian Sea Tuscany
Liri-Garigliano (7) 158 km 98 mi Tyrrhenian Sea Abruzzo, Lazio, Campania
Bòrmida 153 km 95 mi Tanaro Liguria, Piedmont
Tirso (8) 152 km 94 mi Sea of Sardinia Sardinia
Basento 149 km 93 mi Ionian Sea Basilicata
Panaro 148 km 92 mi Po Emilia-Romagna
Aterno-Pescara 145 km 90 mi Adriatic Sea Abruzzo


(1) Only the first 10 kilometers are in Italy, the rest of the course develops between Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary.
(2) It is by far also the river with the greatest flow.
(3) Mussolini changed the borders between Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany to move the source of the river in his region.
(4) It would be the longest river in Italy (712 km) if ancient geographers had considered the Po as its tributary.
(5) The source is in Switzerland, like the first 104 km of its course, the second Italian river for water flow.
(6) It is called Sarca in the Trentino section, it comes out of Lake Garda with the name of Mincio.
(7) It takes the name Garigliano in the last stretch at the confluence of the Liri with the Gari.
(8) Longest river on an Italian island.