Trail 45 – Alonte

The Alonte trail allows for an extensive exploration of the southern Berici Hills; it presents no difficulties and can be hiked in all seasons.
In addition to the unique cultural aspects of the area, hikers will encounter two unusual territorial features: the imposing military property fence on the border between the municipalities of San Germano dei Berici and Orgiano, and the perimeter of one of the largest open-air limestone quarries in the Berici, located entirely within the municipality of Alonte.
It will also be an opportunity to appreciate the humble yet dignified works and structures of the past, which reflect a careful balance between man and the environment.

What to see

Alonte;
Corlanzone;
Le Toare;
The hills of Alonte;
The Mills of Alonte;
The Rock Tombs, the Castle, and other antiquities.

Recommended equipment and clothing

Sturdy shoes with non-slip tread sole, backpack;
Wear long pants; the rest of the clothing must be appropriate for the season;
Bring some water and food;
Bring a topographic map, compass, first aid kit, mobile phone with useful phone numbers.

Trail 45 Details

Car parking ???

Starting point on foot Town Hall and Church Square

Technical difficulty None (easy route); suitable for people in good physical and mental health

Route length 9 km

Elevation gain and loss Approx. ??? m

Travel time Approx. 3.5 hours

Route description

along the route

Observation Points

From Alonte to Corlanzone

(1)

The excursion begins at the Town Hall square, passing near the church, which is worth a visit if open.
Continue along Via Roma, passing a large rural courtyard that extends along the Alonte stream. After crossing the watercourse, proceed straight until a junction of country paths at the base of the hill; take the one on the left that climbs the steepest slope. Upon reaching a crossroads of small roads, turn right onto the ridge of the Corlanzone hill, offering a wide view of Alonte on one side and the Po Valley on the other. After two hundred meters, turn right again (elevation point 52.10) and shortly after left, following an old road with dry stone walls uphill and a rocky drop downhill extending for dozens of meters.
You then cross a long stretch of meadow flanked by strips of woodland that showcase, like a large botanical display, trees and shrubs typical of these sunny, calcareous soils: downy oaks, flowering ashes, Judas trees, alders, hornbeams, elms, nettle trees, wild asparagus, etc.
With the Corlanzone bell tower in sight, continue straight; following the signs, you will make some detours through the vineyard headlands to reach the church square. To one side, there is a monument to four young men who fell on April 27, 1945, whose inscriptions placed by the families of two victims express the tragedy of that period in Italian history.
The church, dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel, dates back to the 14th century and features a fully frescoed vault over its long central nave.
Descend toward the Corlanzone Pass, which connects Alonte with Lonigo. At this point, the "Bosco dei Molini" variant begins (unmarked, see map and description below). Cross the pass, but before continuing on the other side, you can visit a small sport fishing lake fed by a nearby spring and shaded by tall poplars.

Toward Le Toare

(2)

Returning to the path that climbs the hill, pass three houses and turn right onto a lane entering the woods. By following the signs carefully and using the map (elevation point 72.50), you will avoid other paths and continue in a predominantly E-NE direction through groves of downy oaks, new vineyards, and small cultivated valleys.
After crossing Via Casara Roveri (elevation point 125.20), after 300 m you will pass a farm dedicated to raising various animal species, including ostriches that often run along the fence, curious about passers-by.
Upon reaching a wide ridge where several lanes intersect (elevation point 139.50), turn right onto a flat track running SE, fairly distant from a fixed hunting blind positioned dominantly (elevation point 140) but rather secluded.
Shortly, you reach a small paved road that leads left toward the hamlets of the Toare locality. To the right, you can take the Bocara shortcut to return to the starting point (unmarked, see map).
Before the hamlet, there is a well in a precarious state of preservation, dug along the public road and dated "E.A. 1908." Another well that collects drainage water can be seen behind the houses near elevation point 147.60. Continue along Via Toare and, after a couple of turns, cross the Ca Vecchie hamlet via country stretches.

On the hills of Alonte

(3)

After half a kilometer on Via Monte Pozzetto, the northernmost point of the route, turn right (after Via Colombello) and at the first junction turn right again, where the itinerary winds southward among numerous sinkholes (small closed valleys) and partially cultivated land.
The path then approaches the imposing military property (D.M.) fence and winds for nearly a kilometer parallel to the vast area guarded and monitored by the Italian Army, an ammunition depot known as the powder magazine.
Then, with a sharp change of direction, the itinerary heads toward Alonte, passing north of the Valle di S. Martino at the edge of vast vineyards equipped with modern drip irrigation systems.
Leaving the agricultural estate, the descent begins, encountering some numbered boundary stones that mark the other large restricted area, the limestone quarry in the Paradiso locality.
Running parallel to a small gully, the path descends to the plain, arriving behind a farmhouse still equipped with a large well, about twelve meters deep, which was used to draw water for the livestock in the stable.
For a short stretch along Via Campolongo, you re-enter the village, passing along the walls of the current Villa Trevisan. This important building, glimpsed through the large gate, still reveals its 16th-century Gothic loggia from the time of the Traversi nobles, despite the transformations over the centuries.

Mills Variant - The Mills of Alonte

(4) - (5)

This detour allows for a closer look at some cultural aspects of the environment around Alonte <strong>(4)</strong>.
Upon reaching the Corlanzone Pass connecting Alonte with Lonigo, leave the Trail 45 signs to descend toward the local cemetery. Past the cemetery, take Via Molini, which gently climbs the valley of the same name.
Here too, as in other places in the Berici, the presence of abundant perennial spring water favored the establishment of several mills in the past <strong>(5)</strong>.
On the left, you will encounter three equidistant buildings that were once mills powered by the water of a channel, here called the "Rio." During the last century, they were all managed by the Pozza families, local millers (some nicknames like "Carlini" arose when a Pozza married the daughter of a certain Carlo Spaliviero, known as Count Carlino).
The first one you encounter was owned by Francesco Pedrin in the early 1800s, then passed to a certain Dr. Vanzetto. Its undershot wheel stopped in 1966 after grinding grain for the entire area as far as Sossano and Bagnolo. Today it is unrecognizable as it has been completely converted into a residence: parts of millstones and other stone elements are buried under the courtyard.
The second mill still retains its rural appearance. Two centuries ago, it belonged to a Trevisan known as Cassandrin. It was a two-wheeled grain mill, one for "white" (wheat for bread and pasta flour) and the other for "yellow" (corn for polenta flour and bran or other cereals). Converted to a single overshot hydraulic wheel (where water arrived from above) around World War II by the renowned craftsman Callisto Peloso from Grancona, it ended its activity with the passing of the Pozza brothers, who in 1985 were still proud to demonstrate their mill's good operation (Sergio Pozza was missing the thumb and index finger of his right hand, lost at age eight while playing among the mill gears of his uncle). Since those years, the 4.2-meter diameter wood and iron wheel has sat motionless at the back of the building, shrouded in vegetation and encrustations, with the water of the Rio flowing over it in vain.

The mill near the spring had a single wheel 5.2 meters in diameter, traces of which are still visible among the prominent concretions on the north side.
Originally, it was a simple square building constructed specifically for a single pair of millstones and belonged to the Archpriesthood of Alonte; when grinding, the operator rested in a small room in the attic. Later, the building was expanded with a house and stable, permanently inhabited by a family of millers. After the last two Pozza brothers left (both bachelors, like many other millers of the final period), the outbuildings were used for trout farming given the amount of water available, but today everything has fallen back into neglect.
Outside the valley and toward the village, a still recognizable rural building is known as La Pila. Here, a wheel powered by the Rio allowed for the "piling" (husking) of rice grown in the rice paddies of the Revese family, who owned the facility. It then passed to the Dal Bosco family and finally to the Contro family.
Another rice mill was present in the early 1800s on the property of the Trevisan family (Camillo and brothers) south of the village, where the Rio still flows behind the ancient manor house, though now completely piped.

The last millers of Alonte enjoyed reciting a short nursery rhyme that identified the places and actions of a world now vanished: "Up we shall go / If we are able / Possa or no Possa / One grain at a time."
(First mill at the top with plenty of water where one could always grind / Second mill well-equipped but with less water than the first / Third mill where the hydraulic force decreases ("Possa" alludes to the Pozza family) / Last mill where the water, with little energy, could only power the "piloni" for the rice).

The spring and the cave of the mills

(6)

The Mills Spring is one of the most copious and perennial in the southern Berici, enough to generate a watercourse several kilometers long. It is fed by rainwater which, collected in the mass of soil and rock behind it, descends until it hits impermeable layers and then emerges through the collectors of a complex system of fractures in the limestone strata.
The Alonte Mills Cave is located about a hundred meters further north and slightly higher than the spring to which it is connected.
The striking entrance opens at the base of a large overhanging ledge frequented by rock climbers. Following heavy rains, it helps discharge the rainwater that is quickly absorbed by the karst plateau above, which is characterized by many sinkholes. The cave is of the "resurgent" type and is difficult to enter due to the presence of siphons and permanently flooded sections.
It has been the subject of various speleological expeditions which have confirmed an explored development of 670 m (the second longest natural cavity in the Berici) with a depth, relative to the entrance, ranging from -5 to 11 m.

The rock tombs, the castle, and other antiquities

(7)

The Alonte hill, though only about a hundred meters high, has been frequented since prehistoric times due to its isolated, easily defensible position and its proximity to water and other resources. This is evidenced by flint tools, terracotta, and metal fragments found especially on the slope descending into Val Molini, dating back about 3,500 years to the Bronze Age.
On the southern slope of the hill, however, one can observe a series of ancient burial pits carved into the rock. The horizontal bedding of some rocky ledges favored the establishment of a small rock necropolis. Eight rectangular tombs remain clearly visible, sized to hold a human body. On the narrower inner sides, they feature raised sections serving as headrests, while a channel is carved along the outer perimeter to accommodate a cover and drain water. Some others are partially destroyed and hidden by uncultivated land. Similar to the tombs in Barbarano Vicentino, they also share the same orientation (predominantly NW-SE), which, besides being dictated by the similar morphology of the two sites, appears to be intentional. By analogy with other locations, the necropolis is dated to the 4th-7th centuries, when a place of worship existed on the Alonte hill before the custom of burying the dead at Christian parish churches became mandatory.
The summit of the hill was likely fortified as early as the 9th century during the Hungarian invasions, but the lack of medieval documents regarding the stronghold could be addressed through archaeological research. Indeed, if the site became a convenient "quarry" for ready-to-use stone after the castle was abandoned, there still remain massive walls, semi-buried tunnels, entrenchments, and large squared blocks that, if studied, would shed more light on the ancient fortified church of Alonte.
Of the old church, rebuilt and dedicated to St. Blaise, only the perimeter walls can be seen today—austere witnesses to Alonte's centuries-old history, recently saved from complete ruin by the current owners.

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