Saturday, June 1, 2019

Day 16 - Primolano to Cismon del Grappa


We spent the night at a friendly, albeit quirky hotel in Primolano. Perhaps it was our location, but there didn’t appear to be much to do in the town. We walked across the road before dinner and took a tour of the train station. It was a small, but cheerful station. It had a platform and a machine to validate one’s ticket, should one choose to take a train to either Trento or Bassano del Grappa.


Having seen the highlight of the town, we spent some time sitting in front of the hotel, watching the occasional car drive up the road to the roundabout and then---anticipation builds---either continue on the road toward Pianello, or take a full spin around the roundabout and head back the the way it had come. How many hours have I spent dreaming of a time to come when I will while away the hours, sitting at a table in front of an European hotel, nursing a glass of wine and watching the world pass by?


I was living the dream.


The other rooms in the hotel seemed to be filled with bikers. I would like to assert that their exuberant clomping up and down the stairs, and their loud voices kept me awake all night, but that would be a terrible untruth. After our evening repast, I lay down on the bed (a little past 8:30), and knew no more of the world around me until roughly 5:30 AM the next day. Insomnia is one ailment that long distance hiking sorts out in a hurry. I slept the sleep of the virtuously exhausted.


Our hotel offered a free breakfast on the “you snooze, you lose” model. We have had a number of elegant, quiet breakfasts in the places we have stayed. There has always been an abundance of speck, cheese, rolls, yogurts, and other palate-tempters. This morning, however, we were competing with eight bikers, and the food went fast. Why, the speck plate was nearly empty before I could elbow my way through the pack. There was no replenishment of the food on offer: once it was gone, it was gone. I was able to secure some yogurt, a single slice of cheese, and a couple of buns. Twenty minutes later, after the bikers had ravaged the buffet and departed, two older men arrived. They eyed the solitary scrap of bread with woeful and slightly bitter eyes.


But the coffee was good.


Since we had a very short stage, we set off late today. Back on the bike trail, we headed east. As it was a Saturday, the bicyclists were flying by in swarms. It made for some uncomfortable walking.

A Narrow Passage

Midway down the trail, the route went around a cliff face on an elevated walkway. The walkway was covered with a section of chain link fence to deflect boulders rolling down from the mountain above. The wire mesh did nothing to stop the waterfall that was tucked out of sight and proved quite a surprise for the bikers flying around the corner. A cool spritzer on a warm day.


Eventually our steps brought us to BiciGrill Cornale. We decided to pull in and have a quick espresso, as we were well ahead of our schedule. We met the owner of the place, Romano, and he was so taken by the fact that we were hiking the Via, that he insisted on taking a selfie with us. Turnabout is fair play.

Romano and the Author

Continuing on the way, we encountered a man who seemed to be working on some sort of graveyard. We stopped to talk to him, and I was forced to employ my dubious Italian. His name was Germano, and as best as I could make out, he and three friends were building a memorial to the men who died during WWI on Mount Grappa.


In 1917--18, the Italian and Austrian armies fought three brutal battles over Mount Grappa, which offered a commanding position over the region. Thousands of men were killed on both sides, and today, there is a memorial on the peak of the mountain where a mass grave holds the remains of more than 12,000 unidentified soldiers.


Here along the trail, Germano and his friends were building a small cemetery, filled with rows of gravestones. I could not figure out if eventually some of the remains will be brought down from the mountain to this place beside the river, or if the graveyard is simply commemorative. In either case the men were happy to pose for a photo with their project.


The Monument Men

We crossed a rickety suspension bridge into town and made our way to our evening abode. We will sleep tonight in the shadow of Mount Grappa.


The Bridge to Cismon del Grappa

Today’s Distance: 9.4

Total Distance: 268.86



No comments:

Post a Comment