The Karst hides many surprises. There are countless traces of the First World War, but not only. One day, I set off for a short walk starting from the parking lot in the Cotici cemetery in the municipality of Savogna d’Isonzo (GO) to reach the top of Monte Škofnik (233 metres above sea level). Here the Associazione Fanti d’Arresto has restored a bunker dating back to the Cold War.

From the armoured position on the summit I can observe the karst rocks around me without noticing much in the way of an outpost. The complex is open on pre-established dates or on request, so the association’s guides are always present. It is they who emphasise how much is hidden from view, a few metres below ground.

Through a door I go down a few steps and begin the visit of the bunker. In no time at all, I found myself going from the warm top of the mountain, surrounded by greenery, to a completely enclosed environment, made of narrow, artificially illuminated corridors. In this system that spreads out underground, each room has been furnished by volunteers to show its original function. Soon I am looking at the writing on the walls and at the original equipment on display.

It is like being in a submarine, in the midst of radar systems that, like a periscope, pop out into the open and then retract, and with all those heavy steel doors around. These open creaking, as if to remind us of the purely cultural purpose of a structure built to cope with an invasion that never took place. I follow the signs for the emergency exit, and above me I see the leaves of the trees. After about an hour the visit ends, as it had begun, near an armoured dome, the only visible part of the labyrinth that is located beneath the Škofnik, of the bunker of San Michele del Carso.