20 Jul 2015

“The Piave was murmuring/, calm and placid, at the passage/ of the first infantry on May 24”.

100 years ago the 1st World War also began for Italy. A dreadful conflict – in which modern and lethal weapons, mixed with the old techniques of frontal assault, claimed a multitude of young lives. With a last-minute about-face, our country slammed the door in the face of the Central Powers and allied with the Entente forces, with the aim of appropriating territories belonging to the Austro-Hungarian Empire but that history and (above all) geography recognized as part of our newborn monarchy.

The absolute protagonists of those three years of war were the mountains of the Northeast, where many battles of unimaginable harshness and severity were fought. Exposed to the elements, to cold and dizzying altitudes, the troops of both sides faced each other for years in clashes that entered the legend of military history.

This year, on the hundredth anniversary of Italy's entry into the war, the places that were the theatre of those bloody and incredible battles have decided to pay tribute to those who fought them. To let younger generations know what happened, as a great symbol of respect for the fallen and above all as a warning for the future, so that certain errors and horrors between peoples and states divided by sometimes imperceptible borders are never repeated.

Among the many initiatives, we point out some:

In Val di Fassa, in Moena, until September 13 there is an exhibition on the Great War at the Navalge cinema.

In Cortina, at the 5 Torri, on August 8 and 9 there will be reenactments of the clashes that took place in the area following the ancient trenches still present.

In Madonna di Campiglio on July 28 a hike is organized from the Fontanabona refuge to the Austro-Hungarian Observatory of Monte Stavel, retracing the paths that belonged to the Great War. In the same location, on August 4 another excursion will be held among pastures and woods typical of traditional mountain life; a place, however, also of dramatic events of the Great War.

In La Villa, on August 12 an exhibition entitled  "Val Badia in the Great War - Unpublished from the Dolomite front 1915-1917" is inaugurated and will remain open until September 20.

In San Candido, inaugurated on July 21, one can attend a photographic exhibition hosted inside the Franciscan Convent