Photo by Giorgio Benvenuti (European Commission Audiovisual Service), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Parks and nature in Riccione
Fondazione Cetacea e Ospedale delle Tartarughe
Fondazione Cetacea is a non-profit organisation founded in 1988 to protect the Adriatic Sea. Since 1994, it has run a sea turtle rescue centre in Riccione, the reference centre for Emilia-Romagna and Marche: according to the Fondazione, over a thousand turtles have been treated there and returned to the sea.
A rescue centre
Turtles arrive at the centre after rescue at sea or on the beach and stay for treatment. The animals present therefore change with admissions; when conditions allow, they are returned to the sea.
The Fondazione also lists sea releases among activities open to the public. At dawn on 6 August 2026, about 400 people watched from Riccione beach as Cira, a turtle rescued on 14 July off Cesenatico after accidental capture and treated in Riccione, returned to the sea. In its 2026 news, Comune di Riccione gives the Fondazione's premises as 13 Viale Canova.
Booking and access
The centre can only be visited on a guided tour booked by telephone: daily in summer, Monday to Friday in winter. Visits explain rescue work and problems affecting Adriatic turtles. Workshops for young people are booked on the same numbers; the visits page also presents educational programmes for schools of all levels.
Support initiatives include symbolic adoption of a turtle, a contribution to rescue work.
The guides to Riccione with children and excursions from Riccione offer other coastal routes to combine with a visit.
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