Panorama Photo

Canale d'Agordo is a nice village in its own, as the present 360° would have the ambition to show. However, it has become especially known as the birthplace of Albino Luciani, namely, Giovanni Paolo I, the Pope for 33 days.
A photo of the so-called "Pope of smile" is visible on the church. The underlying caption "He is here, with his teaching, with his example, with his smile", is taken from the sermon held in Canale by Karol Woytjla during his visit of 26-08-1979. That same days I saw the Polish Pope (who also visited the Marmolada during that travel) in Belluno: I was I child, and for me it was kind of a discovery to check that a Pope existed also in the reality, not only in television. To be even more convinced of this, I took a photo of him from a couple of metres, with my very first camera.
Much later I was also going to cycle to Wadowice, the birthplace of Giovanni Paolo II, but Canale has indeed the advantage that from there I can cycle home in one day (as I did here, through Passo Valles), which from Wadowice is hardly feasible.
Canale d'Agordo marks also the entrance to the Gares valley, which is an exquisite gateway to the less known (eastern) side of the Pale di San Martino.
A very comprehensive loop that can be made from Gares is recorded in this GPS track: http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=15138690

Location: 46.36070 11.91465
Larger: https://bit.ly/38jl2UU