Many recognize the Italian section of the Alpe Adria Cycle Route as passages along old railways. But few recognize that the last section towards Grado also runs on the bed of an abandoned railway: The Cervigno - Belvedere. The section of this railway is very short and the line was built by the Imperial Royal Friulian Railway Company (in German Friauler Eisenbahn Gesellschaft, FEG).
The railway line was designed by engineers Giulio Dreossi and Giacomo Antonelli. In the initial plans, the railway should have extended to Grado but due to the war events of the First World War, this extension was never built. The terminal station should have been built at the Mosconi head, before the mobile bridge that exists today (opened in 1935 together with the road embankment built in that year).
The Habsburg government granted the concession for the construction of the line to the railway company in 1909.
The railway was officially opened for operation on 16 July 1910 without any popular or private celebrations. The inaugural train consisted of 3 carriages and all passengers waved the Austrian flag from the windows. Arriving at the Belvedere station, the locomotive's "celebratory" whistle frightened the inhabitants and some fled into the surrounding countryside.
Passenger and freight traffic was originally operated by the Imperial Royal Austrian State Railways (k.k.St.B.) with trains coming from the main towns of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Following the Italian occupation of the Isonzo sector at the beginning of the First World War, in May 1915 the line was transferred to the provisional management of the Società Veneta. With the Treaty of Saint Germain en Laye, the line became part of Italian territory. In 1920, the Ferrovie dello Stato acquired the operation directly, while ownership of the line was maintained by the FEG, whose capital was in the hands of individuals who had become Italian citizens.
In 1921, the Unknown Soldier train departed from the third track of the Aquileia station for Rome.
Service on the line was discontinued on 1 July 1937, because the inauguration of the road bridge to Grado had benefited road traffic.
The railway was reopened in 1942, following fuel restrictions that made replacement bus services inconvenient. However, the line was limited to Belvedere and the Pontile passenger building and its second track were removed.
The line was officially closed with the timetable change in January 1965.