The Jolanda di Savoia site

The town of Jolanda di Savoia and its countryside belongs to the east part of Padan Plain, in the region Emilia Romagna, which is a major geographical feature of Northen Italy. The plain extends approximately 650 km (400 mi) in an east-west direction, with an area of 46,000 km² (18,000 square miles) including its Venetic extension not actually related to the Po river basin; it runs from the Western Alps to the Adriatic Sea. The flatlands of Veneto and Friuli are often considered apart since they do not drain into the Po, but they effectively combine into an unbroken plain, making it the largest in Southern Europe.

The plain is the surface of an in-filled system of ancient canyons (the “Apennine Foredeep”) extending from the Apennines in the south to the Alps in the north, including the northern Adriatic. In addition to the Po river and its affluents, the contemporary surface may be considered to include the Savio, Lamone and Reno to the south, and the Adige, Brenta, Piave and Tagliamento of the Venetian Plain to the north.