The floating section of the Maritime Museum, with eleven ancient boats in the water, their coloured sails reflected in the canal port designed by Leonardo da Vinci; and the land section where you can learn about materials and techniques used by man over centuries of navigation, and test your skill with knots to find out if you're a true sea dog.

The Spazio Pantani is first and foremost a great act of love for the cyclist nicknamed Il Pirata. The museum houses the entire Pantani world: his trophies, his bikes, books and testimonies of his epic adventures. A visit here will bring back all the excitement of his ride to victory.

Leonardo's Canal Port with its people, its bars and traditional workshops, the fishing boats moored at the quayside. Take a walk here at any time of day or evening, breathing deeply of the salty air and imagining Leonardo da Vinci getting to grips with a new invention or another idea inspired by the landscape and the unparalleled beauty of the sea.

Piazza delle Conserve is a timeless spot, almost hidden in the maritime town. Surrounded by fishermen's low houses, the square owes its name to the two large ice-houses which were once used to preserve fish. In summer you can find small fruit and vegetable stalls here, and a little market selling jewellery, as the locals sit outside to enjoy the evening cool. It's a romantic spot for a stroll.

Piazza Spose dei Marinai: watch the distant sea next to a sculpted group who depict the daily wait for the fishermen's return. The setting sun turns the fishing huts along the water's edge pink: today these are gorgeous and trendy loft apartments, but they were once huts on stilts for net fishing.

And during the Christmas period you must visit the "Marine Crib", the very original arrangement that at Christmas welcomes the Infant Jesus on the ancient trabaccoli and on the paranza, where the characters tell the life of the sea and the traditions of this land. Come and take a picture of this floating nativity scene, which is one of the most photographed subjects in Italy.