Back into Italian territory, the visit continues in the heart of theKarst surrounding Trieste towards an artificial digging created for the Transalpine Pipeline. After a few hundred metres, you leave the height of Mt. Ermada on the left and reach heights 280 (Mt. Cocco), 289 and 279.
Among these, the most interesting is Mt. Cocco (Nad Kokem in Slovenian), occupied by an archaeological site of the Great War. Excavations have unearthed a system of bunkers partly connected with each other and an intricate network of tunnels crossing the summit of the mount: the rather narrow spaces were arranged on two floors, the lower working as quartermaster and radio station, while the upper level, provided with slits to the outside, was used as an observation post.
During the First World War, this fortified system was bombed by the Italian Navy, which was stationed opposite the Gulf of Panzano, in Punta Sdobba, on the mouth of the Isonzo river (now part of the Municipality of Staranzano).
Today, we cannot visit the bunkers in their entirety because, after the war, the residents, affected by the economic crisis, blew them up to recover the iron vaults. Yet, one of them can still be accessed through a fortified corridor that can be reached via a concrete staircase.
