Palù

The Italian name translates the Plodarisch one: Moss, in German Moos, is the marsh. The ground was once boggy. Palù is at the lowest point of the settlement: the houses stand between 1,204 m and 1,229 m, a few dozen metres below the hamlets on the old road.

Everyone's route passed through here. Before 1922 the old road climbed from Palù in a hairpin bend up to just below Pill; in the late nineteenth century, where there had been a staging post for changing horses, a hotel opened. Palù housed one of the village's three cooperative dairies, and in 1948 Sappada's first chairlift left from here, towards Monte Ferro: it no longer exists.

With the new road, today regional road 355, Palù became part of the centre: shops along the street, apartment blocks, and towards the Piave the meadows of the nursery slopes.

This is the point on which it pays to be most precise. On 21 December, according to our calculation, the hamlet's map point receives about 3 h 55 min of direct sun, but not continuously: a first ray at around 9:30, for a few minutes, then shade again until late morning, when the sun comes out from behind Col dei Mughi and Monte Siera; from then it stays until about 15:10. The neighbouring hamlets, higher up, receive more in December.

The other side of the coin is summer: on 21 June the calculation gives Palù about 14 h 20 min, the highest value among the fifteen hamlets. On 21 March the figure is about 10 h 35 min.

These are figures calculated on the terrain model, under a clear sky, for one point: they take no account of trees or buildings, and in Palù the December difference between the highest houses and those nearest the Piave is large. If the house is for Christmas and New Year, it should be seen in those days.

To the south the Clap group, to the south-east Monte Siera, to the west and south-west the Terze; behind, Monte Ferro. Monte Peralba (2,694 m) cannot be seen. Being low down, Palù looks at the mountains from below and faces the wooded slope across the Piave, the one with the ski runs: it is a more enclosed view than that of the hamlets halfway up the slope. From a particular house what counts is what stands opposite, and here the buildings are close together.

Apartments in twentieth-century buildings, mostly in apartment blocks; of the traditional fabric, a couple of houses and a few farm buildings remain. The land-use plan provides for two recovery plans in the hamlet, one of which concerns a ruined building to be rebuilt “strictly according to the original model”: we cannot say whether they have started.

For the Italian Revenue Agency Palù is in the “central” zone, with Granvilla, Pill and Bach: standard homes are valued between €2,000/m² and €3,000/m² (OMI, normal condition, gross floor area). It is a range estimated on completed sales, not the price of a house; asking prices in listings are a different measure.

In an apartment on the road, check which side the bedrooms are on, and ask whether the parking space is included and written into the deed: in the centre, in season, parking is scarce.

Palù is halfway between the church and the town hall, and the walking is on the level: a food shop, the optician and the sports shops are in the hamlet; the post office, pharmacy and town hall are in Bach, a few minutes away. The stop for scheduled buses is on the regional road. The village has a short golf course of 9 holes, based in the hamlet; in summer the square hosts part of the children's entertainment.

Below the houses, on the meadows towards the Piave, are the Campetti, the two drag lifts of the nursery slopes, and Nevelandia, the snow play park with tubes and sledges. Across the river the Eiben chairlift starts: Palù is the hamlet from which you reach it soonest on foot. For Sappada 2000, Pian dei Nidi and Monte Siera you use the ski bus, free for ski-pass holders, or the car.

In directories Nevelandia carries an address in Borgata Palù that corresponds to the main road, not to the park: do not use it to measure how far it is from a house.