“…When Veneto became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1866, inland navigation suffered a new slowdown: the empty coffers of the newborn Italian state threw the river infrastructures into a new state of neglect that made river transport less and less attractive and competitive. At the same time, the unstoppable expansion of the railway continued, perceived as a faster and more efficient means of transport than boats, often hindered and conditioned by adverse environmental conditions, such as droughts or floods, and equipped with slow and obsolete propulsion systems (Vallerani, 2004). Therefore, amidst this inexorable crisis of navigation, the fluvial port of Battaglia still retained its vitality at the beginning of the 20th century, probably thanks to the two emerging industrial poles of Marghera and Padova, the extension of cereal and beet crops that fed mills in Battaglia, and the constant traffic of burci loaded with trachyte.…”