Alano Di Piave
Alano di Piave is a municipality in the Belluno area covering the northern slope of the Grappa Massif, where the mountains descend...
Updated 12 July 2026
The story
The story of Alano Di Piave
Where the Piave meets the Grappa Massif
Alano di Piave's municipal territory develops across a considerable elevation change, from the valley floor crossed by the Piave River up to the northern slopes of the Grappa Massif, which here rises toward the roughly two-thousand-metre Cima Grappa. It's a landscape of transition between the Veneto plain and the Prealps, with beech and conifer woods, high-altitude pastures and small rural hamlets scattered across the slopes. Here the province of Belluno looks out onto the hills of the Treviso area, and from Alano's territory you can clearly see the line separating true mountain terrain from the Prosecco hill belt just across the river. It isn't a Dolomite landscape in the spectacular sense of the word, but it has a quiet charm, made of lightly built-up nature and views over the Piave worth a stop.
The Sentiero delle Meatte and the Great War
The territory's best-known attraction is the Sentiero delle Meatte, a hiking trail carved by the Italian military engineers in 1918 into the rock of the Val Boccaor, to guarantee the protected passage of troops and supplies toward the front lines on the Grappa. The roughly twelve-kilometre route runs through the south-eastern part of the massif, between Alano and the hamlet of Campo, and crosses places that in 1917 were among the most devastated of the battle, with the Val delle Mure travelled under the constant fire of the Austro-Hungarian army. Walking this trail today means physically retracing one of the harshest chapters of the First World War in the Veneto, in a natural setting that has largely reabsorbed the signs of the conflict but still preserves trenches, tunnels and gun emplacements.
The Campo museum and the memory of the conflict
In the hamlet of Campo, in the village's former elementary school, is the Museo Civico Storico della Grande Guerra, which gathers artefacts, objects, documents and photographs relating to the years 1915-1918 on this stretch of the Grappa front. It's a small, locally run museum, but a valuable one for understanding in detail what happened on these mountains before tackling the historic trails, and for putting a human face on a story that might otherwise remain abstract. Together with the Sacrario Militare del Grappa, a little further up the massif but outside the municipal territory, this museum is part of a wider memory trail that crosses several municipalities around the Grappa and the Piave, and is worth approaching unhurriedly.
Mountain life and the local community
Alano di Piave remains today a sparsely populated mountain municipality, with an economy tied to hillside and mountain farming, livestock, and increasingly to hiking and cycling tourism connected to the Grappa. There are no large accommodation facilities nor a commercial offer comparable to the better-known centres of the Treviso area, but small farmhouses and mountain refuges serving those who walk the massif's trails. It's fair to present it for what it is: a mountain village with an important war history, not a fully developed tourist destination, and visitors should expect essential services rather than a rich offer.
Cycling toward Cima Grappa
Alano di Piave is also one of the starting points for the bicycle climb up Monte Grappa, one of the most demanding and celebrated ascents in Veneto cycling, tackled several times by the Giro d'Italia. The road climbing from the village toward Cima Grappa crosses woods, hairpin bends and the very sites of the Great War, offering a substantial elevation gain and views that gradually open up over the Piave, the Prealps and, on the clearest days, the Veneto plain all the way to the sea. It's an experience for trained cyclists more than for casual tourists, but it's one of the most concrete reasons cycling enthusiasts from all over Italy choose to pass through Alano.
Experiences not to miss
- A hike on the Sentiero delle Meatte, through rock and Great War memory
- A visit to the Museo Civico Storico della Grande Guerra in the hamlet of Campo
- A bicycle climb toward Cima Grappa
- A walk along the Piave River at the foot of the massif
- A route combining mountains and the Prosecco hills, just across the river
Routes · Trovido Route
