PIAVE RIVER | ITALY

The Piave is a river in northern Italy.  It begins in the Italian Dolomites of the Belluno Province and flows southeast through the Treviso Province and Venice Province of the Veneto Region, before reaching the Adriatic Sea near the city of Venice. In 1809 it was the scene of a battle during the Napoleonic Wars, in which Franco-Italian and Austrian forces clashed. In 1918, during World War I, it was the scene of Battle of the Piave River, the last major Austro-Hungarian attack on the Italian Front, which failed after costing Austria-Hungary nearly 200,000 casualties. The Battle of the Piave was the decisive battle of World War I on the Italian Front. The river is thus called in Italy Fiume Sacro alla Patria (Sacred River of the Homeland) and is mentioned in the patriotic song " La leggenda del Piave".