Belluno to Feltre

About hotels... In the last post I described the journey from Codissago to Belluno.  In the early twentieth century the only hotel in the area of Codissago was the Albergo alla Posta at Longarone.

The inn at Longarone 

This was the same inn from where Padrig Droug ran the garrison while the French army occupied the region and where Lucia worked.  In 1810 the proprietor was not Bortolo de Zan.  This advertisement is from Alexander Robertson's Through the Dolomites from Venice to Toblach published in 1896.

Two of the places where travellers could stay in 1896

Albergo Cappello e Cadore in the early 1900s

The Hotel and Pension Cappello is now the Albergo Cappello e Cadore - if you follow this link you can view photographs dating from the end of the nineteenth century onwards, such as this one of the entrance to the hotel, which looks much the same today - thought the cars that come and go are much less interesting!

Before leaving Belluno I went to explore the region of the town where the zattieri used to live - Borgo Piave. Borgo Piave is close by the river at the junction of the Piave with the Ardo.  Marked on the map is the Via Uniera dei Zatèr (zatèr is the Bellunese word for the zattieri), and the Via San Nicolò  (the patron saint  of the zattieri).

Central Belluno showing Borgo Piave ['La Mia Guida Turistica' - Provincia Belluno/Dolomiti Turismo]

One of the old houses in Borgo Piave [ ©Peter Alexander Gray 1998]

 
In 1998 some of the old buildings where the zattieri of  Belluno used to live had still survived redevelopment of the area.  Above the door of this house could be seen a fresco of a bird perched on the branch of a tree.  I'm told that it was common to put something like this above the doorway of each house to identify the folk living there.  The zattieri were poor people with little or no education, and lacked reading and writing skills.  The modern sign '2A' would have been meaningless to them.

I have already included a post about Belluno in this blog entitled The Beautiful One.  If you visit Belluno a trip to the Tourist Office close by the duomo is a must. They can provide you with lots of helpful free things: maps, leaflets and this wonderful guide CD (left) which is in both Italian and English.

It was time for Una (my bicycle) and I to set off for Feltre.  On our way out of Belluno, heading south along the right bank of the Piave, I stopped at a greengrocer's to buy some fruit.  I also asked for, and was given (with some puzzled looks), one of those little wooden boxes in which tomatoes were sold at that time.   This was to support my soft cool bag better on Una's rear carrier.  It was a perfect fit.

We stopped at a garage to beg some air for Una's rear tyre, as she was not only bearing my weight, but also  the weight of the cool bag (holding spare films, water and food for the journey) and the rucksack on my back; the rear tyre was looking very flat.  

The guy at the garage was great.  He put in what he considered the maximum safe amount of air, refused any payment, and when I went to shake hands he offered me the back of his hand rather than the palm, which was black with oil.  A real gentleman!

Belluno - Sedico - Santa Giustina - Feltre [Alte Vie delle Dolomiti - Tourist Information Belluno]

It was a chilly morning when I set off from Belluno but by the time I reached Sedico the day was hotting up.

I was cycling in light trousers with a pair of cycle clips (borrowed from a friend before leaving Scotland!) around the ankles. Who says only the Italians can do fashion?  

A well-dressed British cyclist [The Online Bicycle Museum]

Next month's blog post will feature readers' letters.  Please do send your questions or suggestions about anything at all in this blog.  Here is one further subject you might wish to ponder: 

Roger, the man in the photo above has a problem. His focus is on working out how to free his left foot without falling over and impaling himself on the railings.  The heel of Roger's shoe is jammed in the spokes of the rear wheel while the toe of the shoe is stuck under the parapet of the wall.  Will Roger be free in one bound? Please send suggestions for the New Year Postbag!  

At Sedico I changed into shorts, then cycled on down the busy main road to Santa Giustina to discover there a fine church with an elegant campanile to its right.  Its interior was every bit as impressive as the front elevation.  I took the photo [right] against the reflected glare of the midday sun, as I pressed my back into the hedge of the house opposite - the street is narrow! 

Inside the Chiesa di Santa Giustina [ ©Peter Alexander Gray 1998]

Then I was heading down the road once more to find somewhere to stop for lunch.  

Near Busche I found an inn and sat outside in the shade to share conversation with the innkeeper and my bread and cheese with her dog.  Refreshed by a couple of glasses of Italian ale, it was time to hit the road again.

Leading off from the main road is a small lane, the Via del Piave.  I found that the road took me down to the lake there, the Lago di Busche.  

Lago di Busche [ ©Peter Alexander Gray 1998]

You can find some wonderful photos of the amazing wildlife in the are of the lake here.  Seated at the lakeside I found an old man with a weather-beaten face, he was sporting a big white moustache and holding a fishing road - the picture of contentment.  

But when I mentioned the zattieri his face saddened.  If you look at the aerial photograph of the river here you can see that the Piave has been drained of much of the water by the dams that provide drinking water to the towns and water to agriculture for the irrigation of crops. But when it rains, the river, fed by its many tributaries, can still flood.  

The old man told me that in the making of the RAI TV programme covering the rafting of the Piave by the men piloting the three zattere [shown in the post Zattere], a controlled amount of water was released from the dam at Pieve by the national electricity generating authorities.  Despite all care being taken, two men were lost overboard and subsequently drowned.  Down the centuries the zattieri of Codissago were fine brave people; it was not a profession in which you were expected to reach old age...

But Feltre was calling Una and me up the hill.  And... what a hill!  I was tired by now, and a couple of beers at lunchtime had made me a little reckless!  As I toiled away on the pedals I was overtaken by a tractor pulling a trailer and without a second thought I pedalled furiously and caught hold of the tailboard with one hand.  

The event didn't go unnoticed by the tractor driver who, after turning to give me a hard look, proceeded to go up through the gears at an alarming rate.  Behind me Italian cars were queuing up, hoping for an ear or two as souvenirs.  Faster and faster we went... 

Fortunately, just before we reached Feltre, the tractor slowed to take a side turn and I was able to release my grip on the tailboard and go my  independent way.  My Italian isn't bad, yet I couldn't quite make out what the drivers of the cars were shouting at me as they went past...  

But I didn't care.  I suspect that to this day I hold the world speed record for the ascent of the hill up to Feltre by bicycle!

S E A S O N ' S G R E E T I N G S !

Note: This blog supports readers of The Door of Perarolo, a historical novel set in Cadore, Italy in the early nineteenth century.  You can examine feedback from readers in the UK here and in the US here.  The Door of Perarolo is a Kindle ebook comprising 140 chapters.  It can be downloaded from Amazon sites worldwide.  The launch post of this blog gives further details.  The second post provides links to maps, etc..

From Codissago to Belluno

My diary from that summer of 1998 shows that I made several trips to places such as Cortina, Feltre (Feltre appears later in this blog) and also spent time in Belluno library reading and collecting material as part of the research for writing of The Door of Perarolo.  I had by that time based myself in a hotel in  Belluno which allowed me to cycle the Piave in a series of excursions, returning each day to Belluno on the train.  It wasn't until Thursday the 3rd September that I returned to Codissago to cycle along the Piave from Codissago to Belluno.

Zattieri loading a zattera in the nineteenth century

Codissago nowadays has a rafting museum but little else remains, other than the buildings of the village itself, as a record of the rafting industry whose master raftsmen lived here. 

The quay where the rafts were re-cargoed after their arrival from Perarolo has gone, though the quarry behind the quay remains.  The quarry is used nowadays as a test course for learner drivers and looks rather strange - festooned as it is with road signs!  

Napoleone Cozzi's charming painting above shows a zattera being loaded with a cargo of wood at Perarolo - and the scene at Codissago would have been similar.  Some of the wood would have been off-loaded as part payment to the zattieri for their work before the loading of much extra cargo - quarried stone, hand tools, etc. - as described in Chapter One of The Door of Perarolo.

With Barbara and Umberto before leaving Codissago
 for the last time in 1998.  [© Peter Alexander Gray 1998]

They don't make shorts like that for cyclists nowadays...

Umberto had advised me to cycle along the left bank of the Piave, as the right bank is dominated by an industrial area and the road is much used by lorries and so forth; the road is also the main route south for motorists heading towards Belluno.

No self-respecting Italian would would be seen cycling in gear like mine - I have 'English tourist' stamped all over me!  My experience on my travels was that Italian lorry drivers enjoyed thundering past close to the bike giving me the wobbles with a good blast of air - together with a good blast on the horn for emphasis!

Timber still plays a major part in the life of the people 
 of the Piave valley. [© Peter Alexander Gray 1998]

One of the first things I saw as I cycled south from Codissago was a wood yard full of stacks of timber. As well as being used for the local manufacture of chipboard, timber is a readily-available fuel, and wood stoves are still a major source of domestic heating in Cadore.

The Spiz Gallina silhouetted against the southern light. 
[© Peter Alexander Gray 1998]

Looking down the valley  I could see the characteristic shape of the Spiz Gallina (Hen's Beak).  Shooting into the sunlight created the picture on the left.

The Spiz Gallina is circled in red on the third of the maps below.

Heading down the left bank to Dogna [Carte e Piante Turistiche Tobacco sheet 21]

A bridge takes the road over the Vajont (a little water still flows down the valley).  Then the road rises up towards Dogna.  

Across the valley, where the bulk of the buildings of Longarone were destroyed in the disaster of 1963, a thriving industrial complex is rejuvenating the community.

A section of Longarone sited on higher ground, not directly opposite the Vajont valley, still survives.  The restored part includes the Town Hall, il Municipio.  

The photograph below was taken on the steps of the building in 2008, when my daughter and I visited the region again to take part in the annual walk from Codissago to Perarolo.

I stayed with Michele Berton's family in Castelfranco on the last part of my journey down the Piave valley in 1998.  

Michele was a visiting student (from Padua University) at Aberdeen University during my time as as an academic at Aberdeen.

At Longarone, left to right: Michele, Umberto, Jenny Gray, PAG. [ ©Peter Alexander Gray 2008]

That day in 1998 my bicycle, Una, and I made our way up the hill to the village of Dogna. The houses of the village are very much today just as they would have appeared in the nineteenth century.  

Dogna church [ ©Peter Alexander Gray 1998]

The surfaced road, the lampposts, the cars together with the modern clothes worn by the boy kicking a football are the only strong signs of a century of change.  

Beautiful old houses in Dogna [ ©Peter Alexander Gray 1998]

I recall, looking back on my own youth, playing football by kicking the ball against a wall just like the lad in the photo - probably for the same reason - because there wasn't enough of us to get up much of a team in our small country village.

Church and houses in Provagna [ ©Peter Alexander Gray 1998]

Time was short.  I took the picture to the right of Provagna and a few more before heading on down the valley again.  

You can find some very professional photos taken in both these lovely villages here.  

The road down the valley between Dogna and Provagna was steep in places so I was glad to be able  freewheel downhill to the bridge that crosses the Piave below Provagna, shown on the map below (lower LH corner).

Dogna to Provagna[Carte e Piante Turistiche Tobacco sheet 21] 

My diary tells me that I didn't cross the river but instead continued to follow the road that flanked the left bank of the Piave.

There are many small streams and rivers running down the flanks of Monte Toc (Top RH corner of the map below) and the Spiz Gallena (circled red).  

South of Provagna [Carte e Piante Turistiche Tobacco sheet 24] 

As I headed south the road came close by the Piave - too close.  The river at some time had been in flood and it had washed away a section of the track.  There was a barrier to stop motorists going further, and beyond that the road - according to my diary notes - 'just disappeared into thin air'.   However, other cyclists had been there before me, so I followed their tracks up through woodland and then down back towards the Piave, where the road continued.

A dried-up river or a flow of rocks? [ ©Peter Alexander Gray 1998]

Now and then I would come across what looked like a dried-up river bed full of white dolomite rocks. These may indeed have been river beds (for there had been little rain and the weather was still hot and dry that year, even in early September) or they may have been examples of a boa di ghiaia – which means 'a landslide of stones' in the Cadorino language.  These landslides are common throughout the Dolomites as the mountains (once a huge coral reef) are made of soft rock which cracks under the action of ice formation in the winter months.  

The palestra di roccia in the Gallina valley [Carte e Piante Turistiche Tobacco sheet 24] 

In the Gallina valley there is the palestra di roccia, literally the 'rock climber's gymnasium'.

This is the sort of training ground for would-be alpine mountaineers that can be found in the Cadore region.

Along the left bank to Sovèrzene  [Carte e Piante Turistiche Tobacco sheet 24] 

The dam in the Gallina valley, like the one in the Vajont valley, feeds the HEP (hydro-electric power) station at Sovèrzene (marked Cetrale di Sovèrzene ) on the map above.  The dotted blue lines show the network of tunnels that extend over a vast area of Cadore.

Cycling up the hill out of the Gallina valley was the toughest test for Una and myself that hot day.  It was a steep ascent!  I was glad to coast down the hill through Sovèrzene to the bridge over the Piave, and so cross to the right bank, so as to take the road south to Ponte nelle Alpi.  

When the bridge was built a special ramp was constructed to allow the safe passage of zattere.  You can see it if you look carefully!

Ponte nelle Alpi (Capo di Ponte)  [Carte e Piante Turistiche Tobacco sheet 24] 

Ponte nelle Alpi was originally called Capo di Ponte (the name used in The Door of Perarolo).

Before arriving at Belluno I wanted to take photos inside the little church there, the chiesa di Santa Caterina, but the three old ladies acting as custodians there told me that photography wasn't allowed inside the church.  There are many fine photos of the church to be found on the Internet, such as this one.  

One of old ladies put the lights on inside the church for me.  My notes tell me that there was a very old display 'like an ancient Welsh dresser' stocked with religious artifacts. The altar was lit by electric candles.  I left a donation towards the upkeep and was told that Santa Caterina was the oldest church in Veneto.  I recorded in by diary that it was a very beautiful bijou church.

Leaving Ponte nelle Alpi I had to head back north a short distance and take a left fork onto the main road that runs along the right bank.  Then it was a straight run along the main road to Belluno and a hot shower back at the hotel.

If you have seen the photographs of the zattere in the post Zattere you may have wondered what happened to these amazing rafts after their historic journey downriver to Venice.

One of them was bought by the owner of a restaurant near Belluno and put on display outside under the cover of some trees.

One last surviving zattera [ ©Peter Alexander Gray 1998]

Littered with leaves and with one oar post missing it was still a great thrill, that evening, to walk the length of this amazing river craft.  But if you're standing outside one of the best restaurants in the Belluno district, the obvious thing to do is to go inside and try the menu...

They're happy because... [ ©Peter Alexander Gray 1998]

Are they happy because they eat lard?  No, I think it was the red wine...  Except in Barbara's case - she is only a moderate consumer of wine.  Umberto and myself though, the owner of the restaurant (wearing his kitchen apron) and the random Italian who decided to join us have all had too much of the vino rosso.

OK, here's a test for Italian language students.  Can you explain this T shirt in Italian?  [ ©Peter Alexander Gray 1998]

In next month's post Una and I head south towards one of the best preserved of all Italian towns - Feltre.

Note: This blog supports readers of The Door of Perarolo, a historical novel set in Cadore, Italy in the early nineteenth century.  You can examine feedback from readers in the UK here and in the US here.  The Door of Perarolo is a Kindle ebook comprising 140 chapters.  It can be downloaded from Amazon sites worldwide.  The launch post of this blog gives further details.  The second post provides links to maps, etc.

Vajont, Erto and Longarone

The old river port of Codissago lies on the left bank of the River (Fiume in Italian) Piave.   
Una (my bicycle) and I arrived for the first time in Codissago  late on the evening of 29th August 1998.  I was visiting my old friend Umberto Olivier.  

Barbara checks out Umberto's pose.   [© Peter Alexander Gray 1998]

Please note that I have already posted in this blog here information concerning Codissago.  
The photograph on the right was taken outside Umberto's house in Via IX Ottobre, Codissago.   I stayed there that night and the next morning Umberto took us both on a tour round the villages surrounding the Vajont dam.

Umberto is a native of Longarone, and was in Milan on a business trip when the terrible events of the Vajont Dam Disaster of October 1963 occurred. As a result, he was the only member of his family to survive.







The events leading up to the disaster and the aftermath are the subject of Renzo Martinelli's film 'Vajont'.  The film features the attempts of the communist journalist Tina Merlin to alert the government to the effects of the construction of the Valont reservoir next to Monte Toc which, up to the night of the 9th October, had exhibited signs of an imminent landslide. This was in the form of movement cracks on the north face bordering the lake, and cracks forming in the walls of building in the villages around the lake.

At 10.39 pm more than the usual number of people were in the three inns of Longarone watching the football match between Real Madrid and Glasgow Rangers, when the disaster happened.

260 million cubic metres of rock (marked 'FRANA DEL MONTE TOC' on the map below) slipped off the north face of Monte Toc into the reservoir causing huge waves, big enough, for example, to take the roof off the schoolhouse at Casso.  Most of the small villages around the lake were reduced to rubble.  

If you examine the map below carefully you will see a shape like a crescent moon, but black in colour.  This is the barrier of the original reservoir.  The lake (Lago del Vajont) itself has been shifted about two kilometres east as a result of the vast landslide.  

To extract water from the lake, engineers have bored a tunnel (dotted blue lines) through the debris of the landslip; today the Vajont reservoir provides water for HEP (hydro electric power) and also water for the irrigation of crops.

Map showing the location of Castello Lavazzo, Codissago and Longarone [Carte e Piante Turistiche Tobacco sheet 21]

Below the reservoir, to the west, Longarone was wrecked and buried under mud.  Codissago was also severely damaged.  Over 2000 people died.  Tina Merlin's book Sulla Pelle Viva tells the whole story on which the film is based.

Lago del Vajont and Erto, San Martino and Pineda [Carte e Piante Turistiche Tobacco sheet 21]

Umberto drove us both around the Vajont valley in his car.  After 35 years, life had returned to some sort of normality, though pain and resentment were still there to see. 

Erto in 1998  [© Peter Alexander Gray 1998]

SADE (Società Adriatica di Elettricità) - the Italian energy monopoly - built the dam  despite warnings that the entire side of Monte Toc was unstable and would likely collapse into the reservoir if the filling were completed.

Construction was completed in 1963 and in March of that year the dam was transferred to the newly constituted government service for electricity, ENEL. During the following summer, with the reservoir almost completely filled, tremors and cracks in the ground were continuously reported by worried local people.  All the authorities, including the government, ignored the reports.  The sign on the wall in the photo above says SADE + ENEL + Government = 2500 dead.

Today, much of the site of the old town of Longarone has been redeveloped as industrial units bringing greatly-needed employment in the form of light manufacturing.   The timber industry is still much in evidence, too.  There is a new church in the town which is also a memorial to the people in the area who died in 1963.

I'm sorry that the subject of this month's post is such a sad one.  In the next post will continue the journey south along the riverside towards Belluno.

Note: This blog supports readers of The Door of Perarolo, a historical novel set in Cadore, Italy in the early nineteenth century.  You can examine feedback from readers in the UK here and in the US here.  The Door of Perarolo is a Kindle ebook comprising 140 chapters.  It can be downloaded from Amazon sites worldwide.  The launch post of this blog gives further details.  The second post provides links to maps, etc.

From Rivalgo to Codissago

The last post has brought much correspondence.  

Initials over the gate in Rivalgo [Courtesy Franco Baldissarutti]

I must thank in particular Giancarlo Soravia in Venas di Cadore, Vittorina in Il Covo dei Zater in Perarolo, Franco Baldissarutti in San Stefano, and Enzo Zanvettor from Ospitale who was visiting Perarolo recently and spoke with Giancarlo on the subject of the initials over the gate at Rivalgo. 

In the last blog taken from my audio diary of August 1998 I stated that the initials over the gate (the wrought iron gate on the opposite side of the street from the church) were 'CJM'.  I was wrong.

In fact they are 'CSM' and stand for Cristoforo Svaluto Moreolo.  The name 'Svaluto Moreolo' is one of an ancient family of the Cadore region.  I had no idea that a chance observation would throw up so much discussion!  A big 'thank you' to Carlo et al!

Rivalgo looking north [Courtesy Aldo De Bastiani]

In the 19th century the Svaluto Moreolo family owned sawmills in the Piave valley, and had property in Venice.  Cristoforo's initials CSM appear on a well there bearing the date 1887.

I am recently indebted to Aldo De Bastiani for giving me permission me to use his fine photograph of Rivalgo, showing the church and the gate on the right.  

Since the last post blog post Franco Baldissarutti has contacted me again to say that the gateway has now been demolished (the house that stood in the grounds beyond was demolished many years ago).  I would assume that this was to allow the road to be widened,which in turn would be of benefit to the facade of the church which is subject to wear and tear from debris thrown up by through traffic.

My audio diary from that Saturday in August 1998 tells me that it was approaching  5.00 pm and the light was fading fast - the Piave flows through a valley flanked by mountain ranges  on both banks.  

Una (my bicycle) and I had a quick look at Ospitale before pressing on downriver (see the previous post for details of the great rock in the river, Sas Levado, upstream of Ospitale).

The Piave valley between Rivalgo and Ospitale [Tabacco Carte e Piante  Turistiche Sheet 21]

The tiny church at Ospitale
[© Peter Alexander Gray 1998]

My diary records that '...there is a little stream (the Valbona) running down through Ospitale 'in terraces'.  Beautiful hills everywhere...'  I took one hurried photo of a tiny church, then pressed on down the Piave.

The photo (attribution unknown) below shows a better view.  This is part of Ospitale is Sottospitale (Lower Ospitale). 

There exists another larger church further up the hill, but, that evening, time was short  and I needed still to visit Termine before heading finally to Codissago to stay the night with my friends there, Umberto and Barbara.

On old maps the name of the town is shown as 'Hospitale' (the letter 'h' - rarely used - is not aspirated in spoken Italian).   Umberto Olivier told me (the next day) that Ospitale gives its name to the word 'hospital'. The name of the village itself originates from an ancient hospice (the building still survives in Upper Ospitale) intended for pilgrims and wayfarers passing through.

The Piave valley between Ospitale and Codissago
[Tabacco Carte e Piante  Turistiche Sheet 21]

It was time for Una and I to set off downriver again.  What a day!  From Cima Sapadda to Calazo... then Pieve, Perarolo, Ospitale...  I was exhausted!

I permitted myself a quick visit to Davestra, but there wasn't time to photograph any of a most interesting village, before Una and I were away again heading south to Termine.

Termine is so-named because it is situated at the southern  limit of the region where the Cadorino language is spoken in Cadore.  Immediately south of Termine, the language that was spoken in the 19C was Bellunese.  With the coming of television in particular, the Italian language has become dominant throughout Italy.

But local languages are still important, and there are many institutions dedicated to the recording and preserving of these languages.  Anyone speaking Italian and interested in knowing more about the Cadorino language should visit Carlo Soravia's quite exceptionally detailed blog.  There you will find also links to much fascinating information about the history and culture of Cadore.

For those of you who have been following the Scottish referendum this year, let me say Scotland, as a nation, has confirmed it is happy to remain part of the United Kingdom.  We have, as in Italy, many local languages.  I prefer to call them languages, as they are not dialects of English.  The language still spoken in the region of Scotland where I live (the Moray coast) is Doric.  It is not related to Gaelic,  other than it imports 'loan words' - as do all languages.

I digress!  Let me say I am once again indebted to Franco Baldissarutti for writing to me and sending me a photo - in this case of Termine.

The church at Termine looking down the street
 [Courtesy Franco Baldissarutti]

Here is Franco's photo of the wonderful little church there. My diary of 1998 states, 'It is the smallest church - the building is square but the corners are cut off!'

At 6pm the light was really bad - but this was the most remarkable little place of worship I had seen so far on my journey down the Piave valley, so I had to try and take a photo.

The church of S. Maria Maddalena
looking up the street  in the half light
[© Peter Alexander Gray 1998]

Above is my own attempt on a darkening Saturday evening in August 1998.  Then it was down the Piave again - not the easiest stretch passing by the cliffs under Castello Lavazzo with heavy traffic roaring past - over the Ponte Malcolm and so into Codisaggo.  I have already published a lengthy post about Codissago in this blog.  You can read it here.  The next post covers the stretch of river from Codissago to Belluno, and also says a little about that saddest of subjects - Vajont.

Note: This blog supports readers of The Door of Perarolo, a historical novel set in Cadore, Italy in the early nineteenth century.  You can examine feedback from readers in the UK here and in the US here.  The Door of Perarolo is a Kindle ebook comprising 140 chapters.  It can be downloaded from Amazon sites worldwide.  The launch post of this blog gives further details.  The second post provides links to maps, etc.