Now all roads lead to France and heavy is the tread
Of the living; but the dead returning lightly dance.
Edward Thomas, Roads

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Great Informational Kiosks on the Italian Front


If you plan to travel to Italy and Slovenia to tour the Italian Front, you will be pleased to discover that they are very tourism friendly.  One dimension to this is their outstanding system of informational kiosks at the key sites.

This one marks a frontline trench on the Carso Plateau where the early battles of the Isonzo were fought.  Note the trench map, period photos, and multilingual descriptions of the sites. Below are segments of other kiosks at sites I've visited with my groups over the years. 


At the northern end of the Carso overlooking the key city of Gorizia is Monte San Michele, one of the most legendary battlefields of the war.  After capture, Italian forces converted its quarry to the fortified artillery position shown here.


The high-water mark for the Austro-Hungarian Empire on the Italian Front was at Val Magnaboschi on the Asiago Plateau in June 1918, during what is known as the Battle of the Solstice. At the entrance of the valley is a concentration of memorials and cemeteries.


Monte Zovetto was the site of a British Army outpost in 1918. The Tommies who manned it are pictured here. The locals refer to the site as the "Scottish Trenches."


On the Montello, above the Piave river, Italy's greatest ace, Francesco Baracca, fell in 1918.  A beautiful temple-like memorial marks his crash site.


Fort Verena fired the first shots of the Great War on the Italian Front in 1915. The fort is at the crest of a ski slope today and can be visited on a chair lift.



1 comment:

  1. Those are excellent-looking displays.
    In fact, has any other nation or site done better?

    ReplyDelete