I think these elusive Pile Dwellings secretly were the main goal for my December trip to Northern Italy. The Fiavè location seemed a sure bet to see “something”, and when I searched around for opening hours I found out that the Pile Dwelling museum in Fiavè opens up in winter too (2-6 p.m.). So I fitted this area into my full-day itinerary around the Italian Alps, which lead me to no less than 3 new WHS.

Fiavè is a town about half an hour south of Lake Molveno (with a Dolomites view). It lies in a valley and is nice enough in its own right because of the vernacular Alpine architecture. However, I went straight to the Pile Dwelling Museum, located in the town center. The museum is new (or revamped because of the WHS designation?) - see the 2nd small picture for what it looks like. I had expected a small village museum with some pots and information panels. This is a modern museum, however, with ample use of audiovisual presentations. The exhibition focuses on the story of the pile dwellers around Fiavè (not the broader context), on how the archeological research developed, how the people lived etc. Quite a lot of objects belonging to the pile dwellers were found locally, such as baskets and hats woven out of reed. The entrance fee is 3.5 EUR. The museum has friendly staff and is worth at least half an hour. Displays are both in Italian and English.

What it does not provide is a direct link to the field with the remains. This lies 1 or 2 km outside of town, just across the road from the Hotel La Pineta. I parked my car at the hotel, as the entrance road to the piles is limited to visitors of a nearby trout farm. The road has a small sign directing to the archeological site too. The remains of the pile dwelling lie in a peat bog, and there’s a boardwalk around it with some explanations. 100 or so stumps stick out above the water level. A reconstruction of how the village looked like, with some stilt houses on the shore and others in the lake, can be seen in the museum. The visit is still a bit surreal (next to the pond locals were testing snow-making machines), but not as weird I think as the Struve Geodetic Arc.

P.S.

I had attempted an earlier visit, in 2011. While I was staying in Neuchatel, I looked into visiting one of the locations around Lake Neuchatel. But all are hidden below water or sand. To get a taste of it, I went to the Laténium museum. This is a grand archeological museum with both outdoor and indoor expositions. It shows some reconstructions of pile dwellings - they look like wooden houses on stilts that are still common in other parts of the world. The history of these people occupies only one room in the museum. Much of the exhibits are reconstructions too, like clothing. There's not enough "on show" to really get a feeling about what this WHS represents (and I will not count it as a visited site). It left me with a little surprising fact at the end though: the pile dwellers ate dogs!