A Farewell to Arms: From the Isonzo to Montreux

Frederic Henry is an American medic serving in the Italian Army, and speaks Italian. In Book One he visits Gorizia, the town behind the Isonzo front, where he meets other army fellows and the priest. The novel never mentions the castle; the pin marks the fortress above the town, which dates to the 11th century and was damaged in the First World War before being restored in 1934-1937.

Location precision: The novel names Gorizia but no building; the pin marks Gorizia Castle on the hill above the town.

Visitor guidance: The castle hill dominates the city and can be reached on foot from the old town.

In the novel, the Austro-Hungarians break through the Italian lines in the Battle of Caporetto, and the Italians retreat. Frederic's ambulance column is caught in the delay and chaos on the road. The real battle ran from 24 October to 19 November 1917 near the town of Kobarid, now in Slovenia, and the Italian army fell back 150 kilometres to the Piave River. Today the story is told in the museum in the centre of Kobarid, which won a Council of Europe award in 1993.

Location precision: The novel's retreat covers many roads; the pin marks Kobarid, the town the battle is named after.

Visitor guidance: The Kobarid Museum in the town centre documents the battle.

Frederic and his last companion, Piani, catch up with the main retreat and cross the bridge over the Tagliamento. Military police at once take Frederic to the river bank, where officers are being interrogated and executed for the supposed treachery behind the defeat. He escapes by jumping into the river. The Tagliamento is a braided river flowing from the Alps to the Adriatic, so there is no single known crossing.

Location precision: The book names the river but not the crossing; the pin marks the Tagliamento itself, near its lower course.

Reaching Stresa by train, Frederic goes to the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromées. Emilio the bartender warns him that police are coming to arrest him, and he starts to feel like a deserter. Emilio arranges a rowboat, and Frederic rows all night through a storm, with Catherine taking a turn at the oars, until they reach Switzerland. The hotel was built in 1861-1863 facing Isola Bella; Hemingway stayed in Stresa in 1918.

Visitor guidance: The hotel is a working hotel on the Stresa lakefront.

Safe in Switzerland, Frederic and Catherine move to a wooden house on a mountain outside the village of Montreux. Montreux sits on the shore of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps. It is the quiet interval of the book, before they move to Lausanne to be closer to the hospital.

Location precision: The house is not identified; the pin marks Montreux town on Lake Geneva.

Visitor guidance: Montreux is a Lake Geneva tourist town and mountain railway hub; the novel's house is not identifiable.