Vittorio Veneto

We had a great nights sleep, alone in the little Motorhome area and woke up at 8sm.
Our plan of attack for today was just to head down to longorone stopping at Vajont Dam for a quick history lesson and then turn East heading towards another free aire I had found and Slovenia.
We weren’t in any real rush this morning so we actually had a slow start and after a breakfast of Wanda Toasties and topping the water off after we had both had showers we were almost ready to leave at 9:30am when I looked on google maps and found a place to explore. It was slightly off route but the longer we spend in Italy camping the cheaper the trip will be so I set the Sat Nav and we drove south, through Longerone and to the town of Breda.
We arrived around 10:30am and as we got out of Wanda we could already hear the sound of water rushing close by and after paying €2 for parking we headed down the road over a little footbridge and to the ticket office of the Caves Caglieron.
It was just €3.50 each for us to get in and luckily for us, even though there were a few other cars in the car park we were actually the first ones here and we had an escort down the path to the gate where a happy little Italian man let us in.
Straight away on our right was a massive cave with a statue of the Madonna inside, this had cave had started to form naturally but had later been carved out and extended. It now had several natural pillars inside making it look and feel like a church. It was amazing how the sunlight naturally lit it up.
Across from this cave was another cave that had a huge locked door on it and in the summer season this is actually a cheese makers and shop.
From there we started what us called the cave loop and we entered a wooden bridge and crossed under a waterfall and then down a set of steps following the natural path of the gorge and waterfalls down. It was an amazing walk with waterfalls rushing either side of us and as we looked further down the boardwalk we were on it actually cut right through and around the side of the gorge. It really looked like a footpath from an Indiana Jones Movie.
I couldn’t believe we had the place to ourselves and every bend we took revealed more amazing scenery and the way the sunlight played of the waterfalls and Rick formations was amazing. We probably could have just spent the day on that little section of bridge watching the waterfalls and light changing.
Back out the other side of the gorge we were back on to a gravel track and making our way back towards the car park. On the way there was one last cave up a set of steep steps cut into the side of the mountainside and here was the cave of the Madonna.
It is another huge cave that is now an actual church and has an alter at the back and two rows of four wooden pews running down the side with a candle arbor at the entrance. It is still used today.
The tour around the caves only took about an hour and back at Wanda is was now 1:30pm and I thought we still had time to do what we had planned for the day so we turned Wanda around and started to head back towards Longerone stopping at a little town on the way to buy some real Italian gelato. I had pistachio and Nutella and Ellie had pistachio and cherry. They were amazing. We also brought 2 mixed gelato wafer sandwiches and put them in the freezer. Then we hit the road again.
We arrived at our next stop at 2:45pm and Ellie was super pleased because this was the Igne Suspension Bridge. This is a beautiful wooden walkway and located in Igne, a hamlet of Longarone. The structure was built in 1973 in memory of local cableway operators, also famous abroad for their ability to transport timber from the most inaccessible places downstream. It is 100 meters long suspended at a height of 125 meters while the Maè stream flows below and a spectacular views of the valley opens up around.
Even though this bridge was far higher but shorter than Highline 179 I didn’t crap my pants so much, probably because I couldn’t actually see the floor we were so high.
After 20 minutes at the bridge we jumped back in Wanda and drove back through Longerone and into the gorges and then started climbing. This was the exact route of the Giro de Italia in 2023 and we were now heading to the Vajont Dam.
Once we had almost reached the summit of the gorges we had to drive through a series of tunnels each of them just 4 meters tall and just wide enough for a lorry so there were traffic light either side. Passing through the tunnels and out the other side we were now level with the top of the dam and made our way to the car park.
This isn’t a normal Dam anymore as the concrete structure of the Vajont Dam remains intact towering of the town of Longerone but there is no longer any water being held back.
On 9 October 1963, engineers saw trees falling and rocks rolling down into the lake where the predicted landslide would take place. Before this, the alarming rate of movement of the landslide had not slowed as a result of lowering the water, although the water had been lowered to what SADE believed was a safe level to contain the displacement wave should a catastrophic landslide occur. With a major landslide now imminent, engineers gathered on top of the dam that evening to witness the tsunami.[citation needed]
At 10:39 pm, a massive 2-kilometre-long (1.1 nmi; 1.2 mi) landslide, with around 260×106 m3 (9,200×106 cu ft) of forest, earth, and rock, fell from the northern flank of Monte Toc into the lake below at up to 110 km/h (31 m/s; 59 kn; 68 mph) (another source gives 25 m/s (90 km/h; 49 kn; 56 mph)[14]), generating a seismic shock. In 20 seconds it reached the water level; by 45 seconds the landslide (now at rest) had completely filled the Vajont reservoir. The impact displaced 115×106 m3 (4,100×106 cu ft) of water in about 25 seconds, 50×106 m3 (1,800×106 cu ft) of which overtopped the dam in a 1⁄4 km-high (250 m; 820 ft) wave.[1][15][4]
The impact with the water generated three waves. One went upwards, reached the houses of Casso, fell back onto the landslide, and went on to dig the basin of the pond of Massalezza. Another headed toward the shores of the lake, and through a washout action of the same, destroyed some localities in the municipality of Erto e Casso. The third (containing about 50×106 m3 (1,800×106 cu ft) of water) climbed over the edge of the dam, which remained intact except for the ring road that led to the left side of the Vajont, and fell into the narrow valley below.
The roughly 50×106 m3 (1,800×106 cu ft) of water that managed to climb over the work reached the stony shore of the Piave Valley and swept up substantial debris, which poured into the southern sector of Longarone and destroyed the town except for the town hall, the houses north of it, and other neighboring towns. The death toll was about 2,000 people
It’s an amazing sight to see how much land actually fell into the lake because now there is no lake and the car park we were now parked in looked across to the Dam one way and the wall of mountainside that collapsed the other.
We returned to Wanda and carried on heading East towards Slovenia and what we thought was going to be our park up for the night in the town of Majano. Unfortunately when we arrived we found a small holding at the side that had lots of cockerels so we looked for another free place and decided to move 20 miles down the road to the town of San Daniele del Friuli and we arrived at 5:30pm and we were knackered.
It was a beautiful free Motorhome area, next to a kids park and green space right on the edge of town and there were several other motorhomes already there. We parked up behind a big Italian Motorhome and decided we were too lazy to cook and after a cup of tea we walked into town and brought a genuine Italian pizza.
We ordered the maxi size that should have been 50cm and the guy made the whole thing from scratch right in front of us spinning the dough around and shaping it on a marble worktop. Then he put the toppings on and put it in the oven. It was actually so big it didn’t fit properly in the box and they had to fold the edges over. It smelt lovely all the way back to Wanda and fortunately for us by the time we got back it had cooled enough to really enjoy it without taking the roofs of our mouths off. We were both unbelievably hungry and actually only left one piece each.
Then as we settled in for the night at 8pm we heard the mouse squeaking. I checked the trap and there he was so we wandered down to the green space away from the motorhomes and let it go.
Back in Wanda we were rearranging the cupboards putting them back together after getting rid of the mouse and a huge lightening and thunder storm broke over head. It sounded so loud as were in a valley and the sound of the thunder just echoes of the mountainsides. Fortunately there wasn’t a lot of rain and at 10:30pm we turned the TV off and settled into bed.Read more