4a - Prosecco Hills Trail

Description

a. Main route – Difficulty level EE: the hiker has to cross the main road in Tarzo (please note and visit Bonsai Museum where is possible to see the Bonsai World Champion beech) and hooks up to the itinerary n°23 “La Via dei Murales-Monte Comun” which is traveled in the opposite direction. Then the trekker has to go up to “via Castello”, intercept the trail signed 1051 that runs along the ridge of “Monte Comun” (m 490). Then to Nogarolo passing through some exposed stretches in the woods. In the village of Nogarolo the hiker has to cross the road and follow a stretch of paved path that was the ancient Nogarolo – Serravalle connection that remained active until the middle of the last century. Climb to the top of’ “Monte Baldo” (597 m) which is the highest hill on the way. Spectacular view of “Passo Fadalto”, “Revine Lago”, “massiccio del Visentin”, “Monte Pizzoc”, Vittorio Veneto and the Treviso plain. Descend with some challenging passages up to the ruins of the fourteenth century Montesel Castle (a moat, remains of walls and a deep well). Aierwards the hiker reaches a panoramic terrace with the remains of the ancient church of “Sant’Antonio Abate”, in front of the sanctuary of “Sant’Augusta”. Then he has to go down to the ancient walls and then arrive in “Serravalle”, “Piazza Flaminio”.

From Serravalle you go down to “Via Martiri della Libertà”, “Via Cavour” and “Viale della Vittoria” arriving in front of the Town Hall of Vittorio Veneto, the final destination.

Curiosities

The path is also an opportunity to experience a journey through geological history in three different moments of the world orographic formation. Looking at the map, in fact, the line does not run on the same ridge line, but alternates on three different “hogbacks” of the “Core Zone”:

• From Vidor to the river Soligo we are on the oldest hogback of the Montello conglomerates (the youngest one is the hill of San Gallo in Soligo). We move on sediments of fluvial-delta environment (6-7 million years).
• From Follina to Zuel di Là you walk instead on the calcarenites of Castelcucco , of the Aquitanian period (about 22 million years), very beautiful because they contain the famous whitish algal nodules (concretions of calcium carbonate) that stand out compared to the surrounding sandstone which is bluish-gray; The nodules were formed by algae from the marine environment with water depths of a few tens of meters.
• The stage from Zuel di Là to Vittorio Veneto town moves instead on the Monte Baldo Formation, of the Serravalliano-Langhiano period (13-14 million years) composed mainly of gray sandstones, often with fossils of bivalves. These were also formed in a marine environment of limited depth but with a greater contribution of sand from the emerged continent.