San Vito di Cadore

June 4, 2025

Wow, what an amazing day it’s been. Breathtaking in so many ways. I’m a day late because, this time because I was zonked at 10pm last night. Yesterday’s tardiness was because of lousy wifi at the hotel. It may have had something to do with an intense electrical storm, perhaps. Including rest days in the tour is also coming in handy for keeping up with the journal. Thanks to everyone who’s following along and commenting. It’s fun to know you are enjoying our adventure.

Watching the weather forecasts seems to be more critical than ever in a tour in the mountains but ironically, those forecasts are notoriously difficult to predict. Looking outside is the best way forward. Today, it was sunny and dry so we pushed off after a good feed at breakfast.

We chose to ride the minor highway out of Ponte nelle Alpi instead of the gravel bike trail, considering the amount of rain that fell yesterday.

Main street, Ponte nelle Alpi, deserted at 9:30 am.

We see a lot of firewood piles in this area, all neatly cut and stacked. This fellow took it one step further, but it appears he doesn’t use the wood because this little train engine made of wood was here in 2018, as seen in Kathleen’s journal.

It was a short jaunt before we were on the nicely paved and well-maintained Munich-Venice bikeway that paralleled the highway. Just as when the Classens were here in 2018, the highway and the bike way was deserted so it was a beautiful, peaceful ride.

Pink bikes signify the Giro d’Italia, whether or not it actually passed by this year. They signify a warm welcome for cyclists.

Our route wiggled its way up the Piave, which started out as a wide river basin and gradually whittled down to a much narrower river between steep mountains. We gained elevation slowly but consistently as we rode north, gentle tailwind nudging us along.

The Piave, with its islands of gravel deposits, some grown over with deciduous trees.

Water cascades down off the steep rock embankments.

We had the entire bike way to ourselves, except for a two-man crew with weedeaters who were whacking down the grasses along the trail.

Just south of Castellavazzo, lies Longarone. As we rode towards Longarone, we found a significant but very tidy industrial zone. Among the products being manufactured were sunglasses! You know, those expensive Italian frames? Yes, those ones.

Longarone is the site of an historic engineering disaster that took the lives of about 2000 people in 1963. A damn had been built in the Vajont river, a tributary of the Piave, upstream of Longarone. Despite warnings of instability in the adjacent mountain, the damn was allowed to be filled. Then, the inevitable happened, a landslide which plunged into the reservoir and caused an enormous deluge of water, a 250m high wave of water, to hit the Piave and wipe out settlements in its path. Longarone took the brunt of it. Today, the damn still exists but the river flows through and debris is filling it in. This event, the Vajont Disaster is used as an example in ethics, and geologic and engineering courses.

Bridge over the Piave at Castello Lavazzo, looking south at Longarone.

Castle Lavazzo is situated atop a hill which we were navigating up when we came to a sign for the bike way verring off the main road. At that point it was a narrow, very steep gravel path that disappeared high into the boonies, the bushes. We weren’t buying it so we carried on up the hill until we came to a major highway. Uh-oh, somehow we’d missed something, so back down we went. Luckily it wasn’t too far when we found the unmarked trail entrance. It was a roughly paved steep trail that plunged us back down to the river, passing the exit of the gravel path en-route.

The Munich-Venice bike way along the Piave, below Castel Lavazzo.

The ravine narrows considerably. Old villages like this hang on, sometimes just one or two buildings showing signs of occupancy.

Rivers evolve over time and this one, a tributary of the Piave, has been depositing gravel for millennia. It was a staggering amount of gravel, considering the ravine it came from. We haven’t seen anything quite like this.

Across the valley from the gravel bed, we spotted this Tibetan bridge, crossing the deep ravine. It’s part of a local walking trail.

We had been riding uphill pretty well all day, which is to say, we were working hard. We stopped for a break at the base of the Perarolo climb, a natural spot for cyclists to stop. It’s a tiny historic forestry town, today the site of a small museum and natural herb garden.

Perarolo museum. No time to take a peek, though.

This old couple spends their days in the garden at the museum.

Beautiful historic murals adorn the buildings in this area.

The road climbs significantly at Perarolo. Here’s one of the switchbacks.

One of the switchbacks on the Perarolo climb.

Views from the Perarolo climb, down on the Piave River.

A little further along, looking across the valley at Caralte and the SP51, where most of the traffic was.

At the top of the Perarolo hill sits Pieve di Cadore. It’s where we took a left turn, following the bike way, and headed for San Vito de Cadore. It is an old railbed, converted to the Munich-Venice bike way.

No more than 10m after I said we should stop for a coffee break or a snack, this cute little renovated train station appeared beside the trail. We settled in to the comfy outdoor lounge chairs and ordered a couple of coffees and a slice of blueberry tarte.

For entertainment, we watched a Backroads group of about 16 piling back their 3-course lunches of salad, papardelle and crème brulèe. They had been shuttled here from Lienz, Austria and after a downhill ride, would be shuttled all the way to Asolo, in Prosecco country. They essentially zipped right through the Dolomites in a few hours. I asked one of the gentlemen what his agenda was for today. All he knew is that they had left Lienz, but besides that, he hadn’t a clue. He said he could look it up when he got home.

We carried on, along the mostly beautiful bike way, with views over the towns in the Cador valley.

Some parts of the trail were level, but it was mostly a slight upward grade.

The views of these jagged mountains were jaw-dropping.

We came upon this mesmerizing scene and stopped to admire all the flowers and greenery, with the sharp mountain peak and the highway bridge above.

The renovated Borca di Cadore train station.

We reached San Vito di Cadore and located our beautiful hotel for two nights right on the main street. We are surrounded by the most beautiful mountains. The clouds are wafting by, letting the sun through, an ever changing view.

Below is the view from our 3rd floor balcony. After settling in, we went downstairs to the afternoon happy hour and celebrated the day with free snacks (pizza, ham and. Cheese buns, delectable desserts and gelato) and a beer.

In small towns like this, it’s very early tourist season, so restaurants take turns opening. Tonight we went to Matu. The staff were great and handled the crowds in their small restaurant with smiles on their faces. We started with a cheese and fresh fruit plate, then I had a mango curried chicken and David had the pasta carbonara. We each had a glass of Valpollicella to go with dinner, a wine that we have overlooked for a very long time. I know we will be drinking it when we get home.

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Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 486 km (302 miles)

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Kirsten KaarsooWhere you folks took the left turn away from Pieve di Condore we went into the town. Wow what climb it was. They had a museum of eye glasses. It may have been interesting to see if it had been open. It was a nice place with fantastic views of the area around.
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1 week ago

Anne AnastasiouHow wonderful to have those bike paths to yourselves! Amazing views.
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1 week ago

Jane KyleBeing at yoga yesterday reminded me to take a look! Really enjoying your pictures and commentary!
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1 week ago

Patty BarronAmazing how the majority of those bicycle paths are so well-maintained, for the most part! Obviously not tourist high season, as you seem to have the field mostly to yourselves.
Another striking feature is the proximity of the houses & their front doors to the street! This has always been a noticeable European feature to me.
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6 days ago