Alpe Cimbra, a thousand different holidays in the shadow of the dragon

When the storm comes, you can only wait for it to end. Then you can choose how to react. Marco Martalar, a world-famous wood artist, reacted twice. The first time by creating an unforgettable work, the Dragon of Magré, more than 6 meters high and 7 meters long, made with 2000 pieces of tree roots swept away by Storm Vaia in October 2018. Then, when his dragon was burned by an unknown hand, he created another one even more beautiful, proud and large, reborn from its own ashes used in the new work of art.

It is the Dragon Vaia Regeneration, the largest in Europe, which majestically watches over the valley at the top of Lavarone, above the hamlet of Magrè. The dragon, accessible only via a path on foot, is today the symbol of the resilience of a land, Alpe Cimbra, an Alpine Pearls location that has become famous above all for its nature, but which with a well-established tourism (the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, already stayed in Lavarone) has not lost its soul. Folgaria, Lavarone, Lusérn and Vigolana are known as a paradise for trekking, golf and biking, with activities that unfold according to the course of the seasons, with summer walks through the woods and pastures of the mountain huts, photos of autumn foliage and skiing in winter, a white amusement park made up of 100 kilometers of slopes, 18 ski bars and refuges, 150 ski instructors and a snow park, but also 80 kilometers for those who love to slow down with cross-country skiing, snowshoes, as well as ice skating or sledding.

But this corner of Trentino has not lost its culture, as demonstrated by the Cimbrian language, which is still studied in Lusérn and Lavarone, by a food and wine tradition that revives humble dishes such as potato polenta, by the many festivals and activities, such as bobbin lace making, which tell its history and folklore. By a history of emigration that today brings back to these valleys a return tourism from overseas in the cult of Santa Paolina. And by the sentinels of history, from Forte Belvedere, on the front line in the Great War, to the mysterious Base Tuono, strategic in the Cold War.

But this corner of Trentino has not lost its culture, as demonstrated by the Cimbrian language, which is still studied in Lusérn and Lavarone, by a food and wine tradition that revives humble dishes such as potato polenta, by the many festivals and activities, such as bobbin lace making, which tell its history and folklore. By a history of emigration that today brings back to these valleys a return tourism from overseas in the cult of Santa Paolina. And by the sentinels of history, from Forte Belvedere, on the front line in the Great War, to the mysterious Base Tuono, strategic in the Cold War.

On Mount Toraro, at 1900 meters above sea level, 3 kilometers away as the crow flies, there was the control area, while 15 kilometers further, in Tonezza del Cimone, there was the command area. “Everything was functional to the surveillance of the Brenner airspace, considered by the CIA as a possible attack corridor by the Warsaw Pact,” explains Maurizio Struffi, former deputy mayor of Folgaria, journalist and writer, now director of the Base Tuono museum park. “For 25 years this was considered the most powerful defense mechanism of NATO in the world. Here enemy bombers had to be stopped by surface-to-air interceptor missiles.” Dismantled like all Nike weapons systems (named after the goddess of victory) with the thaw of the late Seventies, the area was abandoned for decades, until 2010, 33 years after its closure, an agreement between the Municipality of Folgaria, the Air Force, the Autonomous Province of Trento and the Fondazione Museo storico del Trentino, began to recover the war material to set up a museum that is visited every year by over 23 thousand people. A testimony without equal in Europe (the only similar museum is in San Francisco) of the drama of those years, between missiles and hangars today in the shadow of the flag of Peace.

In Lavarone, overlooking the Val d’Astico, this gigantic structure is visited every year by 28 thousand people, who have the opportunity to understand, thanks to some multimedia installations but also multi-voiced shows such as the “Sentinels of Stone”, the atrocious experiences of the Great War. It was designed by the lieutenant of the Engineers Rudolf Schneider and built between 1908 and 1912, not far from the town of Óseli, on a spur of limestone rock (at an altitude of 1177 meters) that juts out over the valley that at the time marked the state border between the Kingdom of Italy and Austria-Hungary. To resist the heaviest bombings, it was equipped with a covering of over two and a half meters of concrete, into which a triple layer of steel beams was inserted. Conceived, like the other fortresses of the Altipiani, to withstand completely autonomously bombardments that could last for days and days, it had large warehouses, an aqueduct equipped with a water purifier, an internal power plant, an emergency room, a telephone exchange and an optical telegraphy room to communicate with the outside. The garrison was made up of 160 Landsschützen (1st regiment) supported by 60 territorials. Today, restored and enriched by a series of interactive multimedia installations that recall scenes of daily life inside the structure during the conflict, it aims to stimulate an emotional experience that wants to make us reflect on the horror of one of the most shocking wars of all time and send a warning of peace to the new generations.

Welcome to the land of the Cimbri, an ancient Germanic population that arrived in this land around the year 1000. Luserna, with 268 inhabitants and its ancient and colorful houses at 1333 meters above sea level overlooking the Veneto, has entered the list of the most beautiful villages in Italy. It represents the last southernmost German-speaking community in Europe: the ancient Bavarian dialect is still spoken today by only 600 people in the world, and here 70 percent of the population uses it. Here you can visit the museum that tells the story of the language and its customs, the art of bobbin lace and nature with the return of the wolf, as well as a 17th-century house museum with a typical stone structure. A few steps away, the Cimbrian institute and the school, where the Germanic language is still taught to children up to 6 years old.