Tarvisio to Pontebba (Italy) (Aug. 16, 2022)

August 16, 2022

Buongiorno, Buono sera, Ciao from Italy!

We enjoyed a lovely dinner at L’Altro Gusto last night and afterwords enjoyed the view from our room over the town of Tarvisio and the mountains, where Dave sat on the balcony and enjoyed a grappa. Hotel Il Cervo — a ski resort hotel in the winter - exceeded expectations. Italy feels different, edgier, cooler, more complicated, not to mention all the hotel staff - men and women - look like they belong in Vogue magazine! There’s nothing like traveling in Europe as an American women to make one feel dumpy and dowdy! Of course it doesn’t help that I have two off-bike “outfits” (one pants and one shorts) to wear for the entire tour. I already feel like I am ready to burn my clothes. But never mind: we have more important things to care about…..like, what a fun day we had.

One of the many cafes/rest stops along the Alpe Adria

The route takes you thru numerous tunnels, originally built for the railroad and later converted to cycling. Some are well lit, others not so much.

We had planned a deliberately short, mostly downhill ride today because I wanted to spend the afternoon in Pontebba (a town along the Alpe Adria) to visit this obscure historical site, the Parc Tematico Della Grande Guerra, which is up the hill a couple of k from Pontebba. The Parc was the site of a major encampment of Austrian soldiers in WW1 and Pontebba was the location of a bunch of battles and the town was destroyed in the fighting; the Italians (aligned with the Allied powers - Britain, France, Russia) were parked on the hill across the valley. The Parc has very little written about it in English so it was a bit of a flier to go up to explore - and what a flier it it turned out to be!

The ride from Tarvisio to Pontebba was wonderful; great bike path and beauty and lots of cycle tourists. We arrived in Pontebba shortly before noon; accommodation availability was VERY limited in Pontebba so we were booked for one night at Albergo Pontafel, which essentially was a pizzeria with a few rooms upstairs. It’s a 1* joint, (and the price reflected that) so I was a little anxious it would be awful. (It got pretty scathing reviews). Our room wasn’t ready but we were able to unload our bags and stopped and had a small lunch - a salad and a plate of San Daniele del Friuli ham. This is a famous ham (I think the pigs are coddled or free range or something) and it was the first time we saw it on the menu; we will probably get a plate of it 3 more times while in Italy and then be totally sick of it for a year! The staff couldn’t have been nicer.

We rode up the mountain (176 meters in climbing), found a poster board for the Parc which we studied closely, but totally misread due to the fact that we erroneously ASSUMED that when you are looking at a large map with a big red arrow that points to a spot, that is an indication that that is where you are standing, ie: YOU ARE HERE. Turns out the arrow was pointing to the start of the foot trail which was a couple of k back in town. The result of this error of ours in Italian mapreading resulted in us us believing the Parc was further up the mountain road, so we proceeded to climb another 200 meters towards Nassfeld Pass, a ride through two very dark, unlit tunnels followed by a ride down a goat track to an area that we thought MIGHT be the Parc (it wasn’t).

Outside of Pontebba on the way to the parc.

No, that building isn't a WWI relic and, no, those are not artillery embankments in the distance but are part of the road's tunnel!

We eventually made our way back to the poster board and determined that in fact the Parc trail started just across the road.

You are not here, but could have been if you were back in town. We were actually at point #6.

We ventured out on the trail and it was very steep and rocky (I was wishing for those collapsible hiking poles that Susan Carpenter carries in her panniers) and climbed up the mountain for quite a ways with Dave thinking (and sharing repeatedly) we were on a wild good chase.

"Seriously?", exclaims a skeptical Dave, "This leads to a war monument?!"

But I love war history and I was determined and ultimately after 20 - 30 minutes of stiff uphill hiking, we finally got to the first site (a 1916 fox hole and related line of defense fortifications).

From there the situation improved and we saw a number of sites (artillery cave, look out point, etc. ). It was spooky because were were all alone (this Parc need some marketing budget- I think it runs on volunteers). It was amazing to think of hundreds of men living on the side of a mountain.

The storm clouds were starting to gather so we only got through about half the parc before we descended but we were satisfied.

Afterwards we were able to check in and our room was actually fine; very basic and inexpensively furnished but really okay. (Admittedly the view out the window was not as charming as the view the day before in Tarvisio but whatever). We had a great meal at the pizza restaurant and left the Albergo Pontafel the next morning feeling quite positive about it, and Pontebba.

Today's ride: 23 km (14 miles)
Total: 446 km (277 miles)

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