Commercial Tours to Italian WW1 Battlefields?

[Marco]

Does anyone know of English spoken commercial tours to Italian WW1 battlefields?

Regards,

Marco

[bob lembke]

Marco;

Do remember that many of the WW I Italian front battlefields are in Slovenija, not Italy. I think I drove thru Kobarid in Slovenija ten times before I realized it was the Caparetto of WW I/Hemmingway fame. (Incidentally, Kobarid has an award-winning recently established WW I museum, with English signage, I believe.) There also is at least one other WW I museum, in an old Austrian WW I fort; I have not visited, but have seen pictures of it.

Slovenija is friendly and relatively inexpensive, and it is likely that you would find a higher percentage of people speaking English and German in Slovenija than in nearby Italy. When I was first there, 40 years ago, I understood that 90% of the young people were taking eight years of English is school at that time, and almost all of the older people spoke German; and in fact that is where I taught myself to speak German, as Slovene is fairly difficult, much more so than Serbo-Croatian.

I am assuming that if you have English and Dutch you must have some handle on German.

There is a paper-bound excellent pocket-sized handbook on the Isonzo Front published in Slovenija produced in several languages, including English, although my copy is in German. If you are interested I could look for it and post the specific citation and you could probably find it on abebooks for a few Euros.

It is possible that the museum in Korarid, which has a web-site, I believe, could guide you to a suitable tour.

I took part in a lengthy thread on the Forum 1-2 years ago about WW I tourism in Slovenija which might be found in a search. There is an amazing road over a mountain pass called Versic a bit south of a ski town called Kranska Gora, built by the Austrians about 1915 to bring supplies and men to the Izonso Front. It was largely built by Russian POWs and something like 300 were killed in an avalance, and there is an Orthodox chapel built by the roadside in their memory. My Slovene mountain guide's father was a Russian POW who quite intelligently never went home after WW I, but stayed in Slovenija. I knew him when he was 95.

Be careful, or I will bombard you with more information about the delights of tourism in Slovenija. The alpine delights in the Triglav National Park are wonderful.

Bob Lembke

[Marco]

Hello Bob,

Thanks for your reply. Never been to Slovenia myself (nor will I for personall reasons) and there is so much to see in the Italian Dolomiti! I wouldn't go on a commercial tour myself but I have been asked through our website. I thought it a good question since the major British battlefield traveling companies do not have Italy in their package (yet?).

Kind regards,

Marco

[MartinWills]

I believe that Flanders Tours and "The War Research Society" have, in their time, run trips to the Asiago area but it's not something they do year in, year out. Worth enquiring, however. It's a fascinating area to visit and there is lots to see.

[paul guthrie]

There are a couple of forts near Asiago restored and open to public, Belvedere is one, quite a site up in the Alps and quite worthwhile but the country near Kobarid is as good as it gets but very tough walking.

[Moriaty]

www.battle-honours.co.uk do a High Altitude Italy 1914-1918 tour in late July