220 km We left from 2037m above the sea level and we arrived at 0m elevation. From Sappada, where the spring of the Piave River is, we followed the stream through the lakes in Calalzo di Cadore and the ancient handmade products in Perarolo di Cadore. We crossed the woods in Castellavazzo, reaching Ponte nelle Alpi, and arriving in the piedmont area of Feltre where the hilly landscape opens up and the stream grows into a river. Beyond the river banks, the vineyards and the countryside of the Veneto Region can be admired, spreading out for kilometres after Valdobbiadene. Afterwards, the river runs along the Montello, of karst formation and with dolines, and becomes integral part of a wide scenery, typical of his middle-course with a gravel bed always in movement. The river reaches Ponte di Piave, where fishing activities and navigation start, then San Dona’ di Piave and the reclaimed areas. In Jesolo and Eraclea the river mouth forms a delta of pure lagoons, bursting with touristic activities. LA PIAVE is a knowledge process, an exploration, an action-research carried out with feet and eyes and through the hands: a 220 km journey on an elusive, iridescent, aquatic land, where the micro and macro melt themselves, communicating between science and nature, fiction and tale. LA PIAVE represents the desire for the river, for his banks, for living the river as aggregation and meeting place: the need of sailing it again, of being in it as in a maternal womb. LA PIAVE represents an identity source, the river as a living being, eager to find his physical space of movement, confirming a common dimension where human actions can live together in balance. LA PIAVE is a community talking to the river through the tales, the culture, the events, the traditions, the economies belonging to him and creating a contemporary, multimedia, and popular catalogue in evolution trough time, between past, present and future. LA PIAVE is an open, multidisciplinary instrument aiming at talking about water as a common good. LA PIAVE action-research lab expresses the need for rediscovering the river full potential, from the spring to the mouth, calling for the citizens, public administrators, organizations, associations, and universities participation. The aim is to affirm the river’s cultural identity, overcoming the restricted and extremely local vision of the river offered nowadays. LA PIAVE becomes a public component of this sharing desire and intends to give back the complex cultural and geographical variety that has always shaped this aquatic land. LA PIAVE takes an active part in building the current perception of the river through real and virtual actions performed along the river flow. It raises awareness about different, but essential, patterns and logics concerning our relationship with nature and water: irreducible element, simultaneously identical and different, mobile and sudden, ductile and persistent, necessary to our life.