Hikes to First World War sites

Hikes through the sites of the First World War: the 52 Tunnels of the Pasubio, the Lagazuoi tunnels and the fortifications of the Linea Cadorna.

Between 1915 and 1918 the Alps were a front line, and the mountains still bear the marks: military roads, tunnels cut into the rock, trenches and fortifications. These hikes pass through them, from the Strada delle 52 Gallerie that climbs to the Pasubio to the Lagazuoi tunnels above the Passo Falzarego, and on to the fortifications of the Linea Cadorna on Cima di Morissolo, above Lake Maggiore.

For the tunnels you need a head torch, and it is worth reading each hike's page for the dark sections and the lift timetables.

Three fronts, three stories

These three walks tell three different wars. On the Lagazuoi the front stood still for twenty-nine months, from 1915 to 1917, and the fighting was done by digging: Italian troops tunnelled upwards inside the mountain from the Cengia Martini ledge to lay a mine beneath the Austro-Hungarian positions, detonated on 20 June 1917, and those tunnels are now part of the Open-Air Museum of the Great War between the Falzarego and Valparola passes. The Strada delle 52 Gallerie, by contrast, was built for moving under cover: it was cut in 1917 by the 33rd Miners Company under Lieutenant Giuseppe Zappa to bring men and supplies up the Pasubio out of enemy fire. The Cadorna Line, finally, never saw combat at all: it was built between 1915 and 1918 to guard the plain against a possible Austro-German invasion through neutral Switzerland, and was abandoned after the war.

These sites are protected by a dedicated law, Italy's Law 78 of 2001, which recognises the historical and cultural value of First World War remains and requires anyone who finds significant movable relics to report them. The practical rule is therefore to collect nothing and leave every fragment where it lies, even what looks like nothing more than a piece of rusty iron. The Pasubio, with its Zona Sacra, is also a place of remembrance and deserves to be walked as one, while for the Lagazuoi tunnels local guides recommend a helmet as well as a torch.