The landscape around Bassano-Del-Grappa in North Italy is formed on a phenomenal scale. We were only in the foothills of the Alps, and yet a zigzagging car journey (many thanks to Jon and Danielle) took us 6000 feet up mount Grappa (about 2000 feet higher than Ben Nevis) to the fortification where the Italians repelled an Austro-German attack during the First World War. This battle, fought in an epic setting, deserves a bit more than the stub page it has on wiki.
The gorges and valleys (carved in metamorphic limestone I think) were far bigger than anything I’ve seen in England, making Cheddar Gorge and the Derbyshire Dales look like rabbit scrapings. No surprise I suppose: Derbyshire was carved from a gentle doming effect caused by subsurface magma. The Alps, which continue to form, are the result of a massive collision of continents and the long drawn out earth quaking tumult of that collision continues to this day.
Bassano-Del-Grappa
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