La Strada delle 52 Gallerie

Yesterday, I took a much needed (and much deserved, in my opinion) day off to go hiking with Tim. After dropping the girls for their bus to summer camp, we drove about an hour and a half south to Bocchetta Campiglia and the start of La Strada delle 52 Gallerie (The Road of 52 Tunnels). We were actually in Veneto, the next province just south of Trento. This amazing “road” was built during World War I on the south slope of Monte Pasubio. The modern-day border between Veneto and Trento was apparently also the border between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy at the time of World War I. The road was built as a supply route for troops serving on the Italian front (and because it was on the south side of the mountains, it was more defensible from the front itself, on the northern side). Further, the road is built, literally, into the mountains. As you can guess at this point, the route includes 52 man-made tunnels ranging in length from 8 meters to 318 meters. In total, the route is 6.5km long, and 2.3km of it are covered.

The latter turned out to be a good thing. It was a rainy day. It even hailed for a few minutes. We appreciated the cover the tunnels afforded. We set out finally at about 9:50am from the parking lot at Bocchetta Campiglia. There were two other hiking groups setting out at the same time. We passed them and headed up (and up and up) for 3.5 hours until we reached the Pasubio Pass. The parking lot at Bocchetta Campiglia is at an elevation at 1216 meters; 3.5 hours and 6.5 km later, we reached Passo Pasubio at 1934m. The signage on the road (and wikipedia) will tell you that the path reaches its highest point (2000m) just outside of the 47th tunnel. However, while standing at the exit of the 47th tunnel, you are clearly looking uphill into the 48th tunnel. On exiting the 48th tunnel, you clearly walk uphill for 10s more meters before heading back down to Passo Pasubio. So I don’t know what’s up with that.

The road was built between February 1917 and November 1917. To look at the effort of the construction, the length and sophistication of the tunnels, and to consider that it was wartime makes the feat nothing short of amazing. The tunnels are all numbered, named, and have signage to indicate their length. Many of them are long enough to demand the use of a flashlight within them. The most impressive is tunnel #19. It’s length, at 318 meters, is in itself impressive. But even more impressive than that, the tunnel enters the mountainside at one elevation, and exits (318 meters and four massive cyclical turns later) much higher up. In several places, the tunnels (gallerie, in Italian) have “windows” that offer nice photo opportunities today but were used to defend the road during the war. Also visible were “wells” in which explosives were kept readied in case the Italians needed to implode their own impressive construction (luckily for us today, this wasn’t necessary). The distance and views back onto the trail, coupled with the foggy (oftentimes on our walk up, the path was nearly completely immersed in clouds) gave plenty of time to think about the men who constructed and used this road. Most poignantly, the sweeping views of the serpentine trail in its completely open sections (sometimes hundreds of meters at a time) immediately make one think of how vulnerable the people who used the trail were on those sections.

After our 3.5 hours in, we reached the Rifugio Achille Papa, named for an Italian WWI general. We were apparently the first hikers to reach it for the day, so we were told it would be a few minutes while the kitchen warmed up. From our vantage point in the rifugio, we could see the exit of the 52nd tunnel, and it was fun to watch people periodically emerge. We tucked in to some goulash (wow!) and some polenta/mushrooms/cheese (Tim claims wow) just as the other two parties we had encountered on the trail joined us. By the time we had finished our meal, the visibility out of said window was, literally, less than a meter. Given the choice between a different path back (along the exposed northern face of the mountain) or the same path back, we chose the latter. We figured either (a) it would clear off and we would see those amazing views people (and the periodic signposts) had spoken of or (b) we would at least be protected by the tunnels 1/3 of the way. Luckily for us, it was (a). So while the trip out was focused on the engineering marvel, the trip back was focused more on the vistas (and some goats).

The walk back took slightly less time (it was downhill after all), and we arrived back at our car about 3 hours after leaving the rifugio. The walk down was more difficult (turns out walking down a wet, rocky path in partial darkness is more difficult than walking up it). At this point, we were approximately 1.5 hours late for the pickup from the return bus from summer camp. Luckily, we had expected this and had engaged Amy to pick up (and entertain and feed) our children. We quickly checked in with her and then drove back to rescue her from her situation of independent parenting of four children under age 10. Everyone survived.

 

I guess we're experts. (Note, we actually didn't notice this sign until after.)

The vast majority of the hike up looked much like this. Unless it was also raining.

Every once in a while we got a burst of sunshine...

Yes, these photos are, for the most part, in chronological order. Yes, the weather was that changeable.

The famous 19th tunnel.

The entrance of #52! (The last one.)

Headed back now...

Route 369 was another alternate route. It went across the top of the mountain. There were metal cables involved. And no apparent place to put one's feet. We opted to stick to the 366.

I swear I thought this goat was going to charge us. (Billy Goat Gruff style.)

I feel like these two need some explaining. I was not using the phone. In fact, we rarely had service. Instead, I was trying to delete some photos off of Tim's phone so I could take the next photo.

Glad we chose the same route back...

The window in the middle of #15.