Belvedere Doss Di Pez

Without going too far back in time, and setting a temporal span of the last 20 thousand years, clearly the greatest formative impact derived from glaciation. At the height of the last great ice age, an enormous branch of the great Atesino Glacier came through the Mendola Pass completely filling Val di Non to a thickness of about 1300 metres (calculating that the glacier in this area extended to about 2000 metres above sea level). According to studies, this glacier continued its gradual flow towards Andalo and Molveno, joining other glacial tongues originating from the western areas of Trentino (Adamello). This movement, despite being slow, carried enormous quantities of material, which accumulated at its terminus to create an enormous morainic fan that forms the hills to the south of Lake Garda. The wide Non valley was shaped and covered with "mixed" materials of glacial origin (easily identifiable along the shores of Lake Santa Giustina), including characteristic glacial hillocks, elongated in shape and known to geologists as drumlins. Drumlins (= little crested hillocks) are a special category of hills that are whale-backed or hump-backed in shape and elongated in the direction of travel of the glacier, with their steepest sides facing uphill. The Doss di Pez, like many other hillocks in Val di Non, was formed in this way by glacial action.