By Bike

The majestic forests of the Dolomites have been an important source of timber for thousands of years, and are still an important part of the local and national economy.

Antonio Stradivari handpicked Norway Spruce trees from the Dolomites that he later crafted into the top-pieces of his revered violins.

The slow growing, unusually dense wood of the spruce was also keenly sought for ship masts by the vast and powerful military and commercial shipping industry of Venice.

Venice itself is built on a lagoon, and over 10 million wooden piles mostly of Alder were cut from the forests of the Dolomites and the forests of Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, floated to Venice and driven into the muddy islands of the lagoon. Slate was then laid on the piles to provide the foundations that float the city.

While Alder is slow to decay and was also used for making water pipes and troughs that you still see in villages and outside cabins throughout the mountains, in the mud under Venice it is also deprived of oxygen and becomes petrified due to the constant flow of mineral rich water around and through it.

The forests are pretty cool for waking through too…