From October 6 to 15 in Belluno the 27th edition of Beyond the Peaks – Metaphors, Men, Places in the Mountains.

Source: press office Municipality of Belluno

The event is made possible thanks to the collaboration and contribution of important partners, starting – and this is the first time – with the Chamber of Commerce of Belluno – Treviso | Dolomites. If you are near the Dolomites in the enchanting landscape that is among the most beautiful in the world, –  points out the President of the Chamber of Commerce of Treviso-Belluno | Dolomites Mario Pozza, “you will be sure to discover a rich entertainment program to get even more in tune and related to the mystery of the mountains.
The Chamber of Commerce is particularly dedicated towards visitors and tourists, to build a culture of knowledge and respect of mountain places especially in view of Milan Cortina 2026. This is possible thanks to the cooperation and support of the valuable partners who have been implementing the “Oltre Le Vette” festival for as many as 27 editions. This year, moreover, we are pleased to extend our best wishes for a special birthday, the 30th anniversary of the Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park, – concludes Pozza.

We will also talk about geology with the Unesco Dolomites Foundation and the 30th anniversary of the Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park. For the first time, the Chamber of Commerce of Belluno – Treviso | Dolomites is among the supporters of the event, and the collaboration with the CAI of Belluno and numerous local entities is strengthened.

Back in the first half of October, in Belluno, Oltre le vette – Metafore, uomini, luoghi della montagna, one of the longest-running festivals dedicated to the mountains on the Italian scene, returns. The historic cultural review of the City of Belluno, now in its 27th edition, has now rightfully entered among the most anticipated autumn events. From Friday, Oct. 6 to Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023, Beyond the Peaks will entertain the public with a rich calendar of 40 events (free admission, reservations recommended) designed to offer multiple insights into the relationship between man and the highlands, ranging from mountaineering to art, literature to geology, sports to the environment. This year’s theme is The Mountain of the Senses: an invitation to reflect on what meaning we give to our going or living in the mountains and, together, how our senses are in the mountains stimulated, enriched, enhanced.

What’s New
There are many novelties in the 27th edition of Beyond the Peaks, starting with the prestigious partners involved. While the support of the Unesco Dolomites Foundation, Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park and CAI – Belluno Section is consolidated, this year for the first time the Belluno Municipality’s festival, organized with the Fondazione Teatri delle Dolomiti, enjoys the important collaboration and contribution of the Chamber of Commerce of Treviso – Belluno | Dolomites.

New projects derive from the synergy with the Unesco Dolomites Foundation and the Park Authority, such as “The Writing of the Rocks,” a series of geologically themed events that delve into this fascinating discipline, which searches the Earth for the history of the past while providing useful elements for understanding the chaotic present of climate change. The project includes several events and an important exhibition set up at Palazzo Fulcis: Torquato Taramelli – Geologist in the Dolomites, 1845-1922 (opening Saturday, Oct. 7, 11:30 a.m.), which aims to acquaint the general public with this little-known but important figure of a scholar, bringing on display for the first time some pieces of the collection of fossils, rocks and minerals that Taramelli donated to the City of Belluno in the late 1800s and the first geological map of the province of Belluno.

Also on the program are popular meetings, a study day in collaboration with the Veneto Order of Geologists, an in-depth look at climate change organized by the Unesco Dolomites Foundation, and other events to be discovered.
Beyond the Peaks will also offer an opportunity to celebrate the first 30 years of the Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park. During the opening night (Friday, Oct. 6, 9 p.m., Municipal Theater), the proactive management of wolves through innovative and pioneering techniques for the alpine context will be discussed, with the first Bellunese screening of Lupo Uno, a documentary by Feltre filmmakers Bruno Boz and Ivan Mazzon, a work that won the award of the Trento Rai headquarters as best documentary at the last Trento Film Festival.

Among the new additions to the program schedule is the “One hour to acclimatize” format, with three meetings in Martyrs’ Square (Friday, Oct. 13, 7 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 14, 11:30 a.m. and 7 p.m.) to discuss with prominent personalities on issues of pressing interest to the area and different visions of development. Three one-hour chats, each focusing on a different topic, will discuss mountains, climate, environment and society. Multi-voice dialogues in which we will read the present and try to imagine the future, both in light of the climate crisis and through cultural transformations that can shape a better perspective for the highlands. In the open-air lounge, along with Pietro Lacasella (Alto Rilievo – Voci di Montagna), Michele Argenta (Ci sarà un bel clima), Luca Pianesi (Il Dolomiti), and Sofia Farina (Pow – Protect Our Winters), who curated the initiative, a number of guests will take turns, including journalist and forestry doctor Luigi Torreggiani, mountaineer Luca Vallata, and CAI Alto Adige president Carlo Alberto Zanella.

With “Oltre le vette fuori dal Comune” the involvement of other Belluno municipalities continues, demonstrating that the review represents a cultural reference for the entire territory and not only for the capital. In fact, among the sponsorships are those of the municipality of Longarone (with several shared initiatives, in the days when the 60th anniversary of the Vajont tragedy is remembered), Sedico and Cesiomaggiore, which will host some events, respectively at the Civic Library and the Ethnographic Museum of Seravella. Just “outside the municipality” will open the 27th edition calendar on Wednesday, October 4 (in Seravella di Cesiomaggiore, 6 p.m.) with the presentation of Daniele Gazzi’s book Dai beni comuni alla proprietà privata. The spread of usurpations in the 19th century, The case of San Gregorio nelle Alpi, Agorà editrice. On Thursday, Oct. 5, the exhibition Armenia – The Shots of Adriano Alpago Novello from Belluno, edited by Manuela Da Cortà and Beatrice Spampinato, will be inaugurated in Sedico, and a book on Syria in the studies of the same author will be presented,
edited by Manuela Da Cortà. Added to these events is the  evening Sept. 23, organized in Longarone in collaboration with “I percorsi della memoria” (The memory Paths).

Program 2023
The official start of the 27th edition of Beyond the Peaks will take place with the opening on Friday, Oct. 6 (5:30 p.m., Palazzo Bembo), and the varnishing of the exhibition Reflected Places. by artist Giorgio Vazza, author of the works that mark the official image of the festival. In his paintings on display on the second floor, and in the installation in the palace’s outdoor courtyard, Vazza proposes a mountain that is as unidentifiable as it is universal, made up of large spaces, silences, and otherness compared to the often convulsive human frequentation.

Palazzo Bembo will be central this year as a venue for exhibitions, meetings with authors and some other events. The rooms on the second floor will host the exhibition Luoghiriflessi (Reflected Places), while the ground floor will host the photographic exhibition Osservare per rigenerare – Sguardi, parole, visioni sul territorio (Observing to regenerate – Glances, words, visions on the territory), the result of the photovoice workshop that involved 15 young people from Belluno as part of the Verve project of the Tesaf department of the University of Padua (opening Sunday, October 8, 11 a.m.).

Also at Palazzo Bembo, the large frescoed hall on the second floor will host the many guest writers of “Parole di carta e di montagna,” the review within the review that will bring 8 writers and their works to Belluno: Paolo Costa, Antonio G. Bortoluzzi, Alex Cittadella, Paola Favero, Loris Giuriatti, Manuela Ruaben and Riccardo Drigo.
Among them, there will be Enrico Camanni in the role of “Writer in Residence” 2023, who will meet the public on the first weekend of the festival by leading two literary walks (Saturday, Oct. 7 and Sunday, Oct. 8, 9 a.m.), presenting his latest book (Saturday, Oct. 8, 6 p.m.) and dialoguing with Paolo Costa (Sunday, Oct. 8, 6 p.m.).

They will also talk about photography, sports and adventure with Giovanni Mattiello (@wild_mattiello, on instagram) on Sunday, Oct. 15 (6 p.m.).
The events of Beyond the Peaks will involve several locations: in addition to the aforementioned Bembo and Fulcis palaces in the city center, the Municipal Theater will be the setting for all evenings scheduled from Oct. 6 to 15 (daily, 9 p.m.). Among the most anticipated guests will be Hervé Barmasse. The mountaineer and writer, after his participation in 2012, thus returns to Oltre le vette for the grand finale on October 15, in an evening event organized in collaboration with the CAI of Belluno, entitled “Beyond the Horizon.” Before him, other big names will come to tread the stage of the Comunale. On Tuesday, October 10, it will be the turn of mountaineer Alessandro Baù in an event, organized with sponsor Montura, that also includes the awarding of the Silla Ghedina Prize for the best climb in the Dolomites. On Wednesday, Oct. 11, Marco Albino Ferrari with his monologue Assault on the Alps will share an accurate analysis of how the approach of the tourism industry and mountain goers is changing. On Saturday, Oct. 7, Gli anni del tempo matto – canto per un pianeta in prestito, Erica Boschiero’s concert with Sergio Marchesini and Vasco Mirandola that offers a reflection on climate alarm with lightness, irony and passion, is staged. The following day, Sunday, Oct. 8, the Comunale will host an evening in remembrance of poet Ugo Neri, 30 years after his death, at which musicians from the group Al Tei, the Coro Minimo Bellunese directed by Gianluca Nicolai, Dino Bridda, and Chiara and Sandro Neri will speak.

On Monday, October 9, the tragic 60th anniversary of the Vajont disaster, it will be time for VajontS23, a choral action of civil theater that will simultaneously involve more than 150 theaters in Italy and abroad in a project promoted by Marco Paolini. Teatro del Cuore, Bretelle Lasche, Danzaoltre, Lavori in corso and Eros De Bona are collaborating on the show, which was commissioned by the Fondazione Teatri delle Dolomiti. On Saturday, Oct. 14, entertaining the audience will be the all-female play Anima, sii come la montagna… based on the works of Paolo Cognetti (The Eight Mountains and L’Antonia), with Chiara Turrini and Beatrice Scartezzini (acting voices), Lorenza Anderle on piano and singer Francesca Martinelli. Underground explorations and adventures will be discussed with speleologist Filippo Felice (Thursday, Oct. 12), author of important underground research and discoveries. A member of the Corpo Nazionale Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico (National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps) in which he has been working uninterruptedly for more than 25 years, a speleology instructor for the Italian Speleological Society, he is considered one of the strongest speleo explorers in Italy. Among the most anticipated evenings that will take place at the Municipal Theater is the one dedicated to cinema (Friday, Oct. 13), made in collaboration with the Trento Film Festival, with the screening of three works presented during the last edition. It will begin with Ripartire da zero, starring athlete Omar Oprandi (who, thanks to the support of Montura, will be present in the theater to present the film) and his feat after a major surgery. This will be followed by the film Altavia 4000, about two friends who climb all the highest peaks in the Alps, and Mountain man, a film from Bhutan that shows us a silent and deserted mountain, quite different from our busy European peaks.

Alongside the indoor events, Oltre le Vette includes several outdoor moments: in addition to the literary excursions in the company of Enrico Camanni (Saturday 7 in Nevegal and Sunday 8 along the Cordevole, 9 a.m.), on Sunday, October 15 (Mussoi Park, 10 a.m.) families can take part in an original nature walk, with creative workshops led by Manuela Ruaben, a teacher and educator specializing in outdoor
education.
To give an account of all the events on the calendar and the institutions involved is impossible here for obvious reasons of space. It is, in any case, a very rich program, involving spectators of all ages. In order for Belluno to be for two weeks, once again for twenty-seven years, the Italian capital of mountain culture.

The program is the result of many months of work by the organizing committee composed of director Valeria Benni, Flavio Faoro, who has followed the festival since the first edition, Valentina Ciprian, who takes care of the festival’s communication, sociologist Diego Cason and Francesco Vascellari, who is in charge of the events related to sports and mountaineering. The official 2023 image features the works of artist Giorgio Vazza, and the
graphic design was taken care of by Martina Gennari’s Meemu studio.

Information, reservations and OLV Spirit
All Beyond the Peaks events are free admission. Online reservations are always recommended. For any further information, visit www.oltrelevette.it and the festival’s social pages.
Also this year, audiences can, if they wish, support the festival through the Oltre le vette Spirit crowd funding initiative: by paying a free and conscious offering at the entrance to the events or exhibitions, spectators will receive a souvenir gadget and help support the festival. By signing up for the Gold card, they will also get a personalized Oltre le Vette Montura t-shirt and the chance to reserve a seat in the front rows.

Partners, sponsorships and collaborations
Oltre le Vette is an event of the City of Belluno, organized with the Fondazione Teatri delle Dolomiti. The 27th edition of Oltre le Vette shows once again how much sense it makes today to talk about the Mountains, learning through a kaleidoscope of significant cultural proposals to feel it, respect it, know it and, ultimately, love it. – comments Raffaele Addamiano, Councillor for Culture of the City of Belluno -It is time to make Culture, here and now, the perfect tool to discover the multifaceted magic of the Mountain, to question the present and, above all, the future of a composite and fragile universe to be bequeathed to future generations.

The Chamber’s support is joined by that of the UNESCO Dolomites Foundation, the Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park and the CAI of Belluno.
There are numerous sponsors of the event, whose contributions give it concrete support. These include the technical clothing company Montura, the Prealpi – San Biagio – Banca di Credito Cooperativo bank, the holding company DBA Group, the insurance agency Allianz – Agenzia Belluno Centro, agents Paolo Soravia and Francesco De Bon, and the company Sest – Luve.
The 2023 edition enjoys the collaboration of more than 30 entities and important sponsorships: Ministry of Environment and Energy Security, Veneto Region, Province of Belluno, Alpine Convention – Convention of the Alps, Trento Film Festival, Italian Alpine Club, Veneto Region Order of Geologists, Unione Montana Bellunese, Municipalities of Cesiomaggiore, Longarone and Sedico.