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Wildflowers at the shore of the Fusine lakes

Water

Paddle and Swim the Alpine Lakes

Tarvisio · Friuli-Venezia Giulia

QUICK INFORMATION

CATEGORY
Water
COUNTRY
Italy
REGION
Tarvisio · Friuli-Venezia Giulia
DURATION
2–4 days

ABOUT THIS EXPERIENCE

WHAT YOU’LL EXPERIENCE

What you’ll experience

The Predil lake rents kayaks, surf-bikes and windsurf gear at its beach establishment, with a volleyball court and a bracing 18 °C swim; the Fusine Inferiore adds pedal boats beneath Mangart. The cold is the point — these are glacial lakes, and the region’s clearest water.

THE EXPERIENCE IN DETAIL

What it’s really like

More here soon — the road is still being mapped.

HIGHLIGHTS

Moments worth savouring

01

Kayak and windsurf at Predil

02

Pedal boats at Fusine

03

Beach volleyball

04

The clearest water in FVG

WHAT TO EXPECT

Good to know before you go

Rentals June–September; swimming is for the hardy — the lakes stay under 20 °C even in August.

MAP & LOCATION

Paddle and Swim the Alpine Lakes

Paddle and Swim the Alpine Lakes, Tarvisio, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy

ATTRACTIONS NEARBY

Pair it with these sights

The pilgrimage sanctuary on Monte Santo di Lussari with the Julian Alps behind
Sanctuary & Mountain Village

Monte Lussari Sanctuary

On the 1,789 m summit of Monte Lussari stands Italy’s most multilingual sanctuary: since a shepherd found a statuette of the Madonna here in 1360 — and it kept returning to the mountain — pilgrims have climbed from Italy, Carinthia and Slovenia. The church burned in the First World War and was rebuilt in 1924 with a hull-shaped wooden ceiling; the painter Tone Kralj frescoed the presbytery in the 1930s. A Carinthian-style hamlet of inns and souvenir shops surrounds it, and the Di Prampero ski piste drops 4 km from the door.

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The Upper Fusine Lake beneath the north face of Mangart
Nature Reserve & Lakes

Laghi di Fusine

Two glacial lakes in a 45-hectare nature park are perhaps the most photographed landscape in Friuli-Venezia Giulia: the Superiore and Inferiore sit under Mangart’s sheer north face (2,677 m), fed by artesian springs and ringed by spruce forest of the thousand-year Tarvisio forest. An easy path loops both lakes past erratic boulders — including the 30,000 m³ Piroma, one of the Alps’ largest — and the Rifugio Zacchi trail climbs into the amphitheatre of the Ponze peaks.

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The green-blue Lago del Predil beneath the Cinque Punte peaks
Lake & Mining History

Lago del Predil & Cave del Predil Mine

Ten kilometres south of Tarvisio, the second-largest lake of Friuli-Venezia Giulia fills a deep glacial basin at 969 m — cold, green-blue and ringed by the Cinque Punte and Cima del Lago. A tiny island is the wreck of the moraine arch of legend, which drowned a hard-hearted village and spared the one hospitable house. Above it, the village of Cave del Predil lived for its lead and zinc mine — worked since Roman times, closed in 1991 — now a mining museum with walkable galleries.

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The Piazza Unità with the town hall in Tarvisio
Town & Cycling

Tarvisio Town & the Alpe Adria Cycle Path

The compact centre holds the 15th-century parish church of SS Pietro e Paolo, the Rag Market legacy (decades of Austrian and Yugoslav shoppers, faded since Schengen) and the Piazza Unità — but the town’s modern artery is the Alpe Adria Cycle Path, built on the old railway bed and running 80 mostly traffic-free km towards Salzburg and the Adriatic. Rent a bike, roll to Kranjska Gora in Slovenia or Villach in Austria; the path is the flattest in the Alps.

View attraction
The Saisera valley beneath the Montasch in winter
Skiing

Tarvisio Ski & the Di Prampero Piste

24 km of slopes rise from the valley floor at 754 m to Monte Lussari’s 1,756 m — fully snow-covered, cold and snowy by reputation, and host of the 2003 Winter Universiade and the 2007 women’s World Cup downhill. The Di Prampero is the signature: 4 km from the Lussari village to Camporosso, black-graded in stretches. Cross-country is arguably bigger: 55 km of trails including the Gabriella Paruzzi arena, plus the Sella Nevea freeride sector under Montasio.

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The wild Saisera valley beneath the Montasch walls
Valleys & History

Val Saisera, Valbruna & the Great War Parks

The Saisera — a roadless side valley of the Julian Alps at Malborghetto-Valbruna — keeps its WWI landscape almost intact: the Grande War theme park walks the old Austrian positions below the Montasch, and the Austrian Heroes’ Cemetery of 1915–18 stands at Valbruna with its memorial plaques. The Ethnographic Museum of Palazzo Veneziano at Malborghetto tells the Val Canale’s triple-culture story. Julius Kugy’s summer house — the Alpine botanist-pioneer — looks over Valbruna.

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MORE EXPERIENCES

More to do in Tarvisio

The path rising through the forest toward the Monte Lussari sanctuary
Hiking

Hike the Pilgrim’s Path and the Kugy Trails

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Cyclists on the old railway bed of the Alpe Adria cycle path
Cycling

Cycle the Alpe Adria Route

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Skiers on the slopes beneath the Montasch in the Saisera valley
Skiing

Ski the World Cup Slopes

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The forest edge above the Upper Fusine Lake
Camping

Camp at the Edge of the Ancient Forest

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The Julian Alps seen across the tri-border landscape
Road Trip

Three Countries in One Day

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FOOD & DRINK

Where to eat nearby

01

Alte Hütte (Camporosso) — the all-wood institution for goulash, barley soup, frico and venison; reserve ahead

02

Osteria Hladik (Tarvisio) — frico, venison tagliolini and plum dumplings in a beloved town osteria

03

Capanna Edelweiss (Fusine lakes) — strudel, polenta and goulash on the western shore of the lake

04

Rifugio Locanda al Convento (Monte Lussari, 1,790 m) — Friulian-Austrian-Slovenian kitchen with a huge Alps-view terrace

05

Agriturismo Prati Oitzinger (Valbruna) — farm gnocchi, frico and strudel from their own cured meats

06

Ai Confini del Golf Club Senza Confini (Tarvisio) — the region’s gourmet table: venison fillet, cirmolo pasta, serious wine list

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HOTELS & STAYS

Where to stay nearby

01

Rifugio Locanda al Convento (Monte Lussari) — sleep at 1,790 m steps from the sanctuary

02

Hotel Sparviere (Tarvisio) — modern alpine hotel in the town centre

03

Albergo Ristorante Spartiacque (Camporosso) — family-run 30-year institution at the gondola base

04

Hotel Valbruna Inn (Valbruna) — small hotel on the village main street, hiking base

05

Hotel Haberl (Tarvisio) — traditional inn with the valley’s best-known breakfast

06

Camping village sites at the forest edge — caravans, tents and cabins minutes from the lakes

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ITINERARIES

Day-by-day routes

Three Countries Day — Tarvisio1 day

Three Countries Day

Italy, Slovenia and Austria in one loop — lakes, a ski-jump and a Carinthian lake town in a single day.

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Lakes, Mine and the Holy Mountain — Tarvisio1 day

Lakes, Mine and the Holy Mountain

Tarvisio’s own greatest hits — both lakes, the mine galleries and the sunset sanctuary on Lussari.

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NEARBY DESTINATIONS

Continue the journey

Kranjska Gora

Kranjska Gora

Alpine Slovenia

Villach & Faaker See

Villach & Faaker See

Carinthia

Trieste

Trieste

Friuli-Venezia Giulia

Bad Kleinkirchheim

Bad Kleinkirchheim

Carinthia

INTERESTS

Explore by what you love

CyclingKayakingBeachesWinter

PART OF

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