Monte Grappa and the Sacrario, on the strada Cadorna from Bassano

Getting there

By motorhome you drive up the strada Cadorna, from Romano d'Ezzelino, and come down the same way: the other roads of the massif are steeper, or narrow with a single lane, or closed in winter. At the top there is a large free car park; there is no official overnight stop at the summit.

• The strada Cadorna, provincial road 148, starts from Romano d'Ezzelino, just outside Bassano, where the expressway has the exit "Romano d'Ezzelino centro, Cima Grappa". It climbs with a long series of hairpin bends up to Ponte San Lorenzo, then becomes gentler for a few kilometres, and in the last stretches towards the summit it is steep again, with peaks of 12 per cent. It is the widest road and the one designed for vehicles, and it is open all year: in winter it is cleared of snow, but after a heavy snowfall it may close for a few hours, as on 28 January 2026 because of an avalanche. At the end a branch, provincial road 149, leads to the open space of the Sacrario
• At the top, the car park is the large asphalted open space between the Caserma Milano and the rifugio Bassano, free, redone by the Ministry of Defence in summer 2026
• The strada Generale Giardino, provincial road 140, climbs from Semonzo, at Borso del Grappa: shorter and much steeper than the Cadorna, with numbered hairpins, two tunnels before the Campo Croce mountain pasture and, between the thirteenth and the seventeenth hairpin, the paraglider take-offs with the pilots' shuttles and very little room to stop. It reaches the 149 a little below the summit. With a long motorhome the Cadorna is better. After snowfalls the Province of Treviso may close the upper stretch, from Baita Camol to the junction with the 149
• From Seren del Grappa and from Feltre, to the north, the Cadorna climbs from Caupo: it has two lanes almost all the way, but with worn asphalt and a few short, very steep ramps. The road of the Val di Seren, which climbs from Seren by way of Chiesa Nuova, is narrow and has stretches of over 20 per cent: it is not for motorhomes
• From Possagno and from Cavaso del Tomba, to the east, you climb by mountain roads up to Monte Tomba and the Dorsale del Grappa, provincial road 141, two and a half to three metres wide, single lane, which the Province of Treviso usually closes for the winter from mid November: it is not for motorhomes
• To sleep near the climb: the Camping Santa Felicita, at via Cenghia 82 at Borso del Grappa, in the valley of Santa Felicita between Romano and Semonzo, with pitches with electricity and almost all with water, a service point, toilets with showers and the shuttle to the take-offs. On the Cadorna, a few hundred metres from the Sacrario, the car park of the rifugio Scarpon takes a few motorhomes: for the night ask at the rifugio, on 328 1021027. The rifugio Bassano, at the top, has no rooms

Practical information

Go up in the morning, visit the Sacrario and have lunch at the rifugio, and come down in the afternoon towards Semonzo to watch the paragliders: at the top it is cold even in summer, and the fog comes in quickly, especially in spring and autumn.

Contacts

Where it is

Cima Grappa · Veneto

You set off from

Notes

• The Sacrario, according to the Ministry of Defence in 2026, is open every day, public holidays included, from 9:00 to 12:00 and from 13:30 to 17:00, and it is free. It is looked after by the Ministry of Defence with its office for the protection of culture and memory, which has its own management at the top, in the offices of the rifugio Bassano
• How it is built: from the open space a flight of steps climbs between five tiers of Grappa stone, narrower and narrower towards the top, where the Italian dead lie in the niches. On the fourth tier is the tomb of marshal Gaetano Giardino, who commanded the Army of the Grappa and died on 21 November 1935; at the top the shrine of the Madonnina del Grappa, the statue blessed on the summit in 1901, damaged in the war and restored, with bronze Stations of the Cross by Castiglioni
• The Via Eroica, about 250 metres long, runs from the shrine to the Portale di Roma between seven pairs of marker stones bearing the names of the places of the Grappa battles; from the two staircases of the Portale you climb to the observatory, which looks out over the plain. On the other side is the Austro-Hungarian sector, two tiers with a chapel in the centre. There lies Peter Pan, an Austro-Hungarian soldier born on 21 August 1897 and killed on 19 September 1918 in an assault on Col Caprile: children leave flowers and pebbles there
• The museum of the Caserma Milano and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele III are closed from 14 September 2026 until the end of the renovation works, and the reopening date has not been announced. The Caserma Milano, on the open space, was the barracks of the men who built the roads and fortifications of the Grappa, and from there you entered the tunnel under cover; the museum has two floors of weapons, equipment, photographs and documents, with a room where films are shown. Before the closure the museum and tunnel were free, and you entered the tunnel in small groups accompanied by the soldiers on duty, asking at the office next to the Caserma Milano
• The other monuments of the summit: the Monumento al Partigiano, the monument to the partisan, by Augusto Murer, from 1974, about three hundred metres from the open space, is reached on foot from the strada Cadorna by a trench passage cut into the rock, on a spur above the Ardosa mountain pasture; the Torrione osservatorio, the observation tower on the spur known as la Nave, the ship, behind the area of the old demolished military base, has the names of the battle sites that can be seen from there carved into the stone
• The rifugio Bassano, on the open space, is open all year, and from November to April it is closed on Tuesdays: a bar all day, a dining room with about 250 seats and Veneto cooking, at midday, and a small room for those who bring a packed lunch. It has no rooms. On its website there are the webcams of the summit, to look at before setting off. The first rifugio Bassano stood where the Sacrario is today, and it was rebuilt here in 1935
• Along the Cadorna: at Ponte San Lorenzo and at Campo de Roa, at Campo Solagna, you can visit 65 metres of wartime tunnels, with a howitzer and the soldiers' shelters; at Col Campeggia, at 1,100 metres, stood the headquarters of the IX Army Corps, and huts, trenches and an observation tunnel have been rebuilt. At kilometre 19, in Val dea Giara, the Baita Monte Asolone has a war museum inside with objects from all the armies, many made by the soldiers themselves (telephone 0424 559000)
• Col Moschin, on the Brenta side, has the Roman column that the city of Rome sent to commemorate 16 June 1918 and a trench rebuilt for schools, with signs along the way; nearby, at the albergo San Giovanni at Solagna, there is the small Roberto Favero museum, with uniforms, helmets and soldiers' objects found on the Colli Alti (telephone 0424 556008)
• The paragliders of Semonzo: Borso del Grappa is one of the busiest free flight sites in Europe, with hang gliders since the 1970s and paragliders since the late 1980s, because strong wind is rare here. The take-offs are on the strada Giardino: the Stella Alpina at 702 metres after the thirteenth hairpin, the Tappeti at 830 metres at Col del Puppolo, and the hang glider ramp at the seventeenth. To watch them come down go to the landing fields at the bottom of the valley: the Paradiso, in via Casale Nuovo at Semonzo, with a large car park, toilets and bars a few hundred metres away, and the Garden Relais, at via Caose 22. Tandem flights are sold by the flying schools of Borso
• The Trofeo Montegrappa, an international paragliding competition on the FAI calendar, is flown in spring: in 2026 from 2 to 6 April, with the competition centre at Romano d'Ezzelino. The 2025 one was cancelled
• The Pellegrinaggio delle Genti Venete, the pilgrimage of the Veneto people, the ceremony for the fallen on the summit, is held every year at the beginning of August, with the Italian and Austrian authorities: in 2026 it was on Sunday 2 August. That day the open space is full
• In spring and summer: after the snow, soldanellas and globeflowers bloom on the summit pastures; in summer the mountain dairies of the massif make Morlacco and Bastardo del Grappa, the two cheeses of the mountain. In 2026, from June to September, the Biosphere Reserve gathered the events of the massif into a spread-out festival, "Il Grappa sopra le Nuvole", the Grappa above the clouds
• In winter: the Cadorna is open and so is the Sacrario, with the rifugio Bassano closed on Tuesdays; the Dorsale del Grappa is closed, and the Semonzo road closes higher up after snowfalls. On the mule tracks and the dirt roads you walk with snowshoes
• In Bassano, before going up: in piazzale Cadorna, south of the centre, is the Tempio Ossario, the church begun in 1908 as a new cathedral and turned in 1934 into a war memorial, with the names of 5,402 fallen; according to the Ministry of Defence it is open on weekdays from 9:00 to 12:00 and from 14:00 to 17:00, and on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays it is opened by volunteers of the associations

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