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L'acqua
de la Piave l'è tanto bona da bever,
e la mena le zate, ma nel mese da magio la va in amor...
The water of the river Piave is so good to drink, and she conveys the rafts, but in the month of May she falls in love.…
(Angela Nardo
Cibele, Acque pregiudizi e leggende bellunesi, Palermo 1888)
I
n common thinking, la Piave or La Plau was seen as a living creature, a female one, endowed with human effects and virtues. Fertile and refreshing mother, artery that put mountains and plains in communication for centuries, ploughed by rafts and wares, she was able to suddenly upset the landscapes she passed through, as her waters swelled and boiled, “fell in love”, for the melting of snow. Nowadays it is hard to think that this river, reduced to a brook, curbed by dams and
power plants, by now void of dignity, was able to convey by the strength of its
waters thousands of tree-trunks from the forests of Cadore, Cansiglio and Montello up to Venice. It is hard to think that men and goods might have been carried on the long rafts. Goods such as valuable butter from
mountain's pasturelands, coal, firewood, millstone from the quarries of Tisoi and Bolzano Bellunese, copper-pyrite from the mines around Agordo, nails and irons from the forges around Zoldo, wine from the hills around Treviso. Transhumant shepherds
travelled along the banks and shores; in autumn they led their flocks to the plain and in spring they climbed up the mountains again. The lean grass of the banks, the scanty tufts and the shores' bushes,
alongside the stubble that grew in the fields, offered food to thousands of sheep,
which in turn fertilized the soil by passing over it.
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But the mighty and raging water was also a barrier between the two riversides, thus contributing to sharpen the cultural and linguistic differences. Bridges and footbridges were often swept away by floods. Communication was possible thanks to the “passi barca” (“boat-passages”) uncertain passages on an artery that flew spontaneously downwards, towards the plain. We would like to lead you through our itineraries, to run again across the lands lapped by this great river: rafts flow down no more, shepherds are rare by now,
“boat-passages” have disappeared for ever. From the sources to the sea, one can still find signs of the unbroken stream of men, wares, ideas, in the toponimy and in the anthropic scenery. There are nevertheless some places,
ethnographic museums that are real memories stores. There it is still possible to imagine this great Piave at the height of its powers, to know the technical skills, the knowledge, and the traditional
behaviour of those who lived and live in the river's catchments basin. This places are starting or getting points of routes that wind across mill and
sawmills, water-scooping machines and rocking nets, wood and stone houses; significant elements that require more protection and respect.
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