Asiago History

Cow with cowbells



One of the many caves

With the long race at 1800m, we thought today we'd train further up on an alphine map. The crazy italian roads seem to be made for only one car, so with perilous drops down a few hundred metres, and nasty blind bends, we put our trust in Norm and Mark to battle the trucks going the other way! The road workers seemed content to leave their digger in the middle of the road and refused to move it on the way down.

It was nice to explore a map that didn't have ankle breaking rocks with every step. However, while this meant we could run faster, the World War 1 trenches and monuments that we came across slowed us down somewhat. This lead to exploring caves made during the war, presumably to store ammunition and for sleeping. The trenches, covered in trees, were in fine condition- giving us a glimpse of how scary and terrible it would have been. Barely shoulder-width apart, well over head, and with small dugouts along the walls, it was an interesting experience. In fact, Jourdan and I managed to run a few hundred meters, following the bends and turns in the trenches- there were even old tins in them! We also got to try out our Italian on a local man searching with a metal dector for bombs (and presumably other WW1 artifacts)!!

On the way back, after another training session in a different forest, we stopped at the Asiago War Memorial; an imposing white marble arch, set at the end of a tree-lined promenade. In the crypt below, the walls were lined with the names of the fallen, with well over 25,000 from this area alone. Amist the photographs was the cemetery we ran across the other day- who would believe that the area was once completely devoid of trees.

The Italian front around the Asiago area saw fighting between the Austrians and the Italian forces, with support from the British artillery. A 1916 offensive by the Austrians drove the Italians off the plateau. However, subsequent coutner offensives in 1918 managed to reclaim this territory. The trenches we found at training represent the front line from 1918. Many of the deaths occured just prior to the Armistice.

Todays second map. Faster orienteering focussed on detail.