Cima Sappada

Zepodn comes from zum Boden, “on the level ground”: perhaps this is where the very name of Sappada comes from, and perhaps this was the first settlement in the valley. The people of Sappada have always felt it to be a place apart, and those who live here have a name of their own, Zepodar.

Geography bears them out. The other fourteen hamlets stand in a line on the sunny slope, on the right bank of the Piave. Cima lies further east, on a terrace of its own at the mouth of the Val Sesis, from which the Piave flows down: a few dozen metres higher than the rest of the settlement. It is also a pass: from here regional road 355 descends towards Forni Avoltri and Carnia.

The layout is different too. Houses and farm buildings are neither in a row nor around a square: they are spread out on the level, almost evenly, with a dense network of internal lanes. This happens in no other hamlet. Cima has its own church, St Oswald, from 1732 and enlarged in 1773, its own cemetery, its own dairy, and since 2009 it has housed the village's Ethnographic Museum.

Cima should not be read like the other hamlets. From here Monte Siera lies to the south-south-west: in December the sun is there in the morning and missing in the afternoon, the opposite of what happens from Hoffe to Soravia. On 21 December, according to our calculation, the hamlet's map point receives about 2 h 10 min of direct sun, in several spells, between roughly 9:35 and 12:55; then no more.

In January the hours grow quickly. On 21 March the figure is about 9 h 35 min, a little less than in the other hamlets because the first morning sun arrives later here; on 21 June about 13 h 25 min. Adding up the whole year, the calculation gives Cima fewer hours of direct sun than any other hamlet: the difference is concentrated between November and January.

If the house is for the winter, the practical rule is: balconies facing south-east, to catch the morning sun. It is a calculation on the terrain model, under a clear sky, without trees or buildings, and the aspect of the terrace, which according to the model does not slope southwards like the hillside of the other hamlets, should be checked on site.

It is the only hamlet from which you can see Monte Peralba (2,694 m), to the north, at the head of the Val Sesis, with Chiadenis beside it. To the south-west is Siera, to the south-east Creta Forata and Monte Cimon; the Terze, which from the centre are close and high, from here are far away and low on the horizon, and the main summit of the Clap group stays hidden. Because the hamlet stands on a level terrace, many houses have other houses in front of them: the view from a particular window has to be looked at, not inferred.

It is the hamlet with the most survivals from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: a seventeenth-century manor house in masonry, three-storey complexes built between the seventeenth century and 1806, a late eighteenth-century house with open hearth and smokehouse that can be visited, the old dairy. They are buildings of the historic zone, each with its protection grade: before buying, ask the municipality what is permitted.

Alongside the old timber there is the new. In the listings we read in October 2026 there are farm buildings rebuilt and divided into apartments; two advertisers gave different completion dates and energy classes for the same kind of project. We report it because it is instructive: in a listing these are statements, and what counts is the contract and the certificate.

The land-use plan provides, in the square, for the recovery of a disused hotel and a new three-storey complex, with a share reserved for permanent residence, and for a development area at the chairlift station. We cannot say which have started.

For the Italian Revenue Agency Cima is in the “peripheral” zone, with Sappada Vecchia: standard homes between €1,900/m² and €2,700/m², detached and semi-detached houses between €1,450/m² and €1,900/m² (OMI, normal condition, gross floor area). They are ranges estimated on completed sales: in listings, in Cima, the gap between a period portion to renovate and a new apartment is very wide.

For everyday shopping Cima is self-sufficient: a food shop, the newsagent, sports goods, the dairy. There are an auditorium, a multi-purpose sports court, a gym and a play area. The stop for scheduled buses is on the regional road.

What Cima does not have: the town hall, the post office, the pharmacy, the doctor, the schools. They are all in Bach and Mühlbach, at the other end of the village: on foot they are far, so you go by car, in a few minutes, or by bus.

The Monte Siera chairlift starts from Cima; the first one was built in 1949. Higher up there is a drag lift, and in the hamlet a magic carpet for beginners. On the meadows below the terrace runs the Cima cross-country loop, connected to the cross-country stadium: the trail is 13 km long in all. The chairlift station is on the shaded side of the valley.

Monte Siera is a sector of its own. For Sappada 2000 and the Campetti you take the ski bus or the car: no ski-in, ski-out link between the sectors is documented.

From Cima starts the road of the Val Sesis, which climbs towards the source of the Piave and the paths of Monte Peralba. In summer 2026 the Monte Siera chairlift was the only lift open in Sappada, and a free shuttle ran to the source of the Piave on request. These are facts of one season: timetables and services change every year and should be checked again.