The first weekend of October brings a varied programme to the province of Belluno. In the city, Oltre le Vette gets into full swing with its official opening, films and great mountain stories; in Cadore, Auronzo celebrates the return of the herds from the summer pastures; in Torbe di Sospirolo the Santa Teresa festival comes to a close; and Feltre continues to remember St Francis eight hundred years after his death. In Belluno the weekend is also about festivities and street food, with Belluno Park Wonderland at the Parco Città di Bologna and the International Street Food market in Piazza dei Martiri. For those who want to be outdoors there is gravel riding among the vineyards of the Valbelluna, the Veses stream and the Nevegàl Botanical Garden.
As always, check the event pages and the organisers’ websites before you set off: in autumn, times and programmes can change with the weather.
Friday 2 October
The day centres on Belluno. At 5.30 pm, on the first floor of Palazzo Bembo, the thirtieth edition of Oltre le Vette officially opens, together with the CAI Belluno photo exhibition marking sixty years of Alta Via no. 1. In the evening the action stays in the centre: at 9 pm the Teatro Dino Buzzati screens two films from the Trento Film Festival, Kronoshock and The road to Patagonia.
Also in the city, from 5.30 pm the Parco Città di Bologna opens Belluno Park Wonderland with food trucks, aperitifs from 6 pm and DJ sets until midnight, while in Piazza dei Martiri the International Street Food market is open from 6 pm to midnight, with free admission.
If you prefer a village festival, Torbe di Sospirolo hosts the second evening of the 41st Sagra di Santa Teresa, with lunch from noon and aperitifs from 6 pm. In Caorera di Quero Vas, from 7 pm, the Sagra della Zucca Santa Bellunese (page in Italian), a festival dedicated to the local pumpkin, opens and runs until Sunday.
Saturday 3 October
The morning offers three very different options. In the Valbelluna, at the Poggio Pagnan farm in Mel, the Poggio Gravel Experience sets off: a non-competitive ride of about 50 kilometres on gravel roads, through vineyards and woods, open to gravel bikes, mountain bikes and e-bikes, with meeting time at 8 am and a pasta party at the finish. In Feltre, at 9 am, the urban trek «Francis and the Franciscans in Feltre’s art and places of worship» leads from the Co-Cathedral through the churches and works of art of the old town, on the eve of the saint’s feast day.
Further north, Auronzo di Cadore begins two days of Gnoche ’n Festa e Desmonteada: the herds come down to the valley decorated with flowers, and around the parade you can taste the traditional gnocchi of Cadore.
In Pedavena La Grande Desmontegada (page in Italian) begins, the festival for the animals’ return from the high pastures: on Saturday at 2 pm there is the food walk «Tra stale a magnar», bookable through the Pedavena Pro Loco. In Cortina d’Ampezzo the Croce Bianca rescue association celebrates its 50th anniversary with «50 anni un solo cuore: Esserci!» (page in Italian), an open day from 10 am at its base in Via Roma 121, with volunteers, rescue vehicles, music and refreshments; at the community garden in Via della Difesa there is the Harvest Festival (page in Italian), with harvesting from 10 am and the party from 2 pm: everyone brings something to share.
In Belluno, Belluno Park Wonderland reopens in the morning with the Morning Club (11 am–2 pm) and, from 3.30 pm, the Kids Area with wooden games and bouncy castles; the International Street Food market is open from 12.30 pm to midnight.
In the evening it is back to Belluno for Oltre le Vette: at 9 pm, at the Teatro Dino Buzzati, the explorer Lorenzo Barone tells the story of «Lungo la Via della sabbia» (Along the Sand Road). In Feltre, at 8.45 pm, Rita Pelusio opens the Tinnifoli theatre season at the Auditorium Canossiano with «Eva, diario di una costola», a comic monologue performed in Italian.
Sunday 4 October
Sunday is the day for guided outings. On the Nevegàl, meeting at 9.30 am in the car park of the La Casera restaurant, Oltre le Vette offers a guided visit to the Alpi Orientali Botanical Garden with the Carabinieri Biodiversity Unit. In Santa Giustina the Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park leads a free walk along the Via dell’acqua of the Veses stream, past mills and old water channels, on the same weekend as the local Crafts Fair.
In Cortina d’Ampezzo, at 10 am, the 4.5 km walk and the 14.5 km non-competitive run of Cortina in Rosa start from the bell tower, in aid of the paediatric ward of Treviso Hospital: 15 euros for adults, 10 euros for children born up to 2014 (as stated by the organisers), with registration by e-mail by 2 October.
From 9.30 am, at the rugby pitches in Via Safforze in Belluno, the 9th Tano De Bona Memorial brings around 500 young players from the U8, U10 and U12 age groups and 16 clubs from Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia onto the field, with games for the youngest children, a “third half” and a fundraising collection for the Aviano Cancer Reference Centre.
For something indoors, the State Archives of Belluno open from 9 am to 1 pm for the «Domenica di carta» (Paper Sunday) with the illuminated manuscripts of the Certosa di Vedana, fragments of codices dating from the 11th to the 15th century. In Auronzo the Desmonteada continues and in Torbe the festival comes to an end; in Pedavena, at 3 pm, the Grande Desmontegada parade takes place.
In the city, Sunday at Belluno Park Wonderland begins at 10.30 am with a free Pilates class, continues at 3.30 pm with the Mago Bronze magic show and ends with an aperitif from 6 pm to 9 pm; the International Street Food market stays open from 12.30 pm to midnight.
Exhibitions open all weekend
At Palazzo Crepadona in Belluno, the exhibition devoted to Amelia B. Edwards brings together for the first time the Dolomite watercolours of the English traveller from 1872. In Feltre, at the Oratorio dell’Annunziata, «Nostro Fratello d’Assisi» tells the story of St Francis in comics throughout October. Just outside the province, in Cappella Maggiore, the GACMA gallery opens the exhibition «Venti di Chimere» on Saturday and Sunday.
If you are looking for…
- Culture: the opening of Oltre le Vette, the Amelia B. Edwards exhibition, the Vedana manuscripts, the evenings at the Teatro Buzzati.
- Mountains and nature: the Nevegàl Botanical Garden and the Via dell’acqua of the Veses.
- Sport: the Poggio Gravel Experience in the Valbelluna, the mini-rugby of the Tano De Bona Memorial in Belluno and Cortina in Rosa.
- Families: the Kids Area and the Mago Bronze at Belluno Park Wonderland, the mini-rugby and the Harvest Festival in Cortina.
- Traditions and flavours: the Desmonteada in Auronzo, the Grande Desmontegada in Pedavena, the Torbe festival, the pumpkin festival in Caorera and the street food in Piazza dei Martiri.
- If it rains: the exhibitions in Belluno and Feltre, the State Archives and the evenings at the theatre.
All other events are in the Belluno Dolomites events calendar.
Photo: Piazza Duomo, Belluno — Alviolosso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
