Monte Piana is a tall mountain in the Sexten Dolomites and located on the border between the provinces of South Tyrol and Belluno. The smaller Northern summit of the mountain is named Monte Piano (2,305m). During the so-called "White War" in World War I the mountain was hotly contested between the Austrian and Italian Armies. The Austrians had occupied the Northern summit Monte Piano, while the Southern summit Monte Piana was in Italian hands. Today many remnants of the fierce fighting can still be found on both summits. History When Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary on 24 May 1915, seven / eight battalions of the thirty-five stationed between San Candido and the Stelvio were sent to Monte Piana and its valleys. Monte Piana was part of the operational sector of the IV Army commanded by Lieutenant General Luigi Nava, whose units were divided into two sectors, Cordevole and Cadore, the first belonging to the IX Corps and the second, of which part of the sector of Monte Piana, under the jurisdiction of the 1st Army Corps commanded by Lieutenant General Ottavio Ragni. On 24 May the Piana was occupied by two platoons of Alpine troops of the 96th company, Pieve di Cadore battalion, of the 7th regiment. Other Alpini of the 67th company around 08:30 were hit by an artillery shell fired from Monte Rudo while they were working on the road from Misurina to Monte Piana; they were the first Italians to fall on a mountain that in less than two years made about 14,000 victims from both sides. Here, on 7 June 1915, second lieutenant Antonio De Toni (7th regiment, 268th company, batt. Val Piave) was fatally wounded, the first to be killed in the Padua university community. At the end of the day, the two years of war on Mount Piana essentially led to nothing; the two contenders fought for two long years on a patch of land, without ever being able to subvert the enemy forces, and on 3 November 1917 the positions on the plain were abandoned by the Italian units to retreat and take sides on the Grappa line in an attempt to resist the Austro-Hungarian offensive in Caporetto Between 1977 and 1981, on the initiative of the Austrian Colonel Walther Schaumann, the "Open-air Historical Museum of Monte Piana" was established and can be visited by all, free of charge. The works for the