Tom`s travels: San Donà di Piave and surroundings (20/09/2024)

On a drive from Jesolo, I decided to visit a couple of towns not far from there. My first stop was the city of San Donà di Piave. After managing to find a parking spot I then headed to the city center on foot. I first passed by the Villa de Faveri, a 19th-century villa in the style of Venetian renaissance villas, but was refurbished following large damage during WWI. From there I followed the town's main street and reached the Duomo, originally dating to the 15th century but rebuilt in a neoclassical style during the early 19th century. It was heavily damaged during WWI and had to be rebuilt shortly after. The city of San Donà, in fact, was not very large in the early period and only managed to grow following several water reclamation efforts, especially in the 17th and later 19th centuries, due to its vicinity to the Piave River. The city was then also bombed heavily during WWI as it was right on the last line of battle following the Italian retreat after Caporetto. Thus my walk around town was concluded and I headed back to the car to drive to nearby Noventa di Piave. Similarly to San Donà, the city suffered great damage during WWI. My first stop there was the church of San Mauro Martire, built in 1923 following the war destructions. Nearby were in fact still the ruins of the ancient church of San Mauro. Now turned into a small archaeological site they belong to the medieval church, originally dating to the 8th century and rebuilt in the 12th. Unfortunately, that church managed to survive until WWI when retreating Italian troops first destroyed the 16th-century bell tower to prevent its use as an observation point for Austro-Hungarian troops and later heavily bombed the city leading to the church's complete destruction. A short walk then led me to the bank of the Piave River, separated from the city by a tall embankment due to its past of having caused damage. Here used to stand an important port, once very thriving during the rule of the Venetian Republic, but which gradually declined as river trading lost in importance starting from the 19th century. Walking back to the car, a short drive then brought me to the town of Fossalta di Piave, just across the river. To get there I had to cross a pontoon bridge. The town was quite small but held some significant monuments. One was the so-called Yellow House, a house where the famous writer Ernest Hemingway was held after being wounded in the nearby embankment in 1918. The house was also mentioned in his novel Across the River and into the Trees, and a nearby plaque remembering the spot where he was wounded. Some other informative panels detailed the history of the war, the different sections of the town and embankment with historical photos, and Hemingway's participation in the war as a volunteer for the Red Cross. I also saw a concrete building right on top of the embankment which looked like a lookout tower but was actually a baptistery built built to commemorate the so-called Ragzzi del '99, Italian conscripts who, in 1917, upon turning eighteen, were sent to the front lines on the battlefields of World War I. Finally, my walk led to the center of town where the church of Immacolata Concezione della Beata Vergine Maria was located. Originally built in 1856 in a neoclassical church, like other churches around town, it had to be rebuilt following the war due to the extensive damage it sustained. At that point it was time to go, so I headed back to the car and drove on home.