Near the Vip village of Milano Marittima, Cervia has always been tied to the production of salt, the salt properties were probably already in operation in the Etruscan period, and certainly have developed in the Roman period.
Until all the Roman times the town has kept its Greek name “Ficocle”, Exarch Theodre then destroyed it in 709 and later was built as a fortified city at the center of the salt poperties until the order of Pope Innocent XII in 1697 of buid the present city.
Among the special features of this town is certainly remembered the “weedding og the sea”, legend has it that Peter Barbo Bishop of Cervia in 1445 was caught in a terrible storm at sea and to stop it gave as a gift to the sea the pastoral ring saving himself and the crew.
In return for favors received, the Bishop promised that every year on Acension Day wold celebrate the event with a solemn ceremony.
This ritual has become a custom for Cervia citizens each year attend the blessing of the adriatic and the boats from the Bishop of Cervia wich flows into the sea the wedding ring, on wich are inscribed the words “Cervia, Marriage of the Sea, year …”.
The ring is cast where a group of guys waiting ready to fish it out, the reward for those who retrieves the ring is itself, symbol of good luck fortune and prosperity kept as a souvenir or used as a wedding ring.