Ice Zebra Airbase Station

>
> "*Nestled on the rocky hills of grass, settle enormous radar dishes defunct prior to it's use of the past. The iconic daytime fog glistens across the sun rays towering beyond the forest below. The flickering evening of rapid thunder and tongues of purple lightning strike the heart of the city. Hooves with tinkering bells playfully thump across the grassy outskirts, wild equine foals herding under cover from the light pattering rain. A disused RV houses in the main building, familiar frames of explorers waiting to be discovered. A popular location with a unique starry realm.*"
> — Narration by Marco Seidlitz, Draconic URBEX episode 10.
>

The **Abandoned Airbase Station** lit. **Ice Zebra** is a popular historical location disused and banished away on the foggy hills of the Italian Alps near Monte Giogo, Italy. Both Marco and Zera romantically spend their night here, a blissful vlog between their campfire cooked meals, gazing above the starry skies and towering cities during massive cloud sparks, wandering through the desolate radio command control rooms and even taming wild equine foals that wander through the outskirted area near the dishes. They even cut slack from video editing and even agree to have a Dragoma battle on one of the gravitational radar dishes. Rickers even claims that his PTSD flashed out visions of skeletal remains of the team seated inside the RV, a frighting knockback to his alluring nightmares. Seidlitz bluffs out his partner's vivid imagination, claiming that it was just a visual schizophrenic prank. The two end together falling asleep in their makeshift tent after an engaging round of bro moments.

**Song played during exploration:**

* "Mission Commence 1" - August Wilhemisson

## History

Cold War: The abandoned NATO radiocommunication station IMXZ-Livorno at Monte Giogo in the Italian Alps — more romantically known by the urbex codename “Ice Station Zebra” — was built in the late 1950s as part of the Cold War ACE High network.

Located at the end of a precipitous, winding, and unmaintained track at an elevation of around 4,900 feet (1,500 meters), the Livorno station has four parabolic antennae measuring 65 feet (20 meters) in diameter. Two of them are pointed towards France while the other two face the Tolfa station near Rome. There are also a few smaller dishes.

The large dishes can be seen from several miles away; since they’re supposed to be secret objects, they’re not particularly well hidden. However, the mountainous landscape is breathtaking — who would have thought that a military object would be placed here?

## Trivia

* NATO has been omitted from Dragoma's version of the location, avoiding any references to the global organization in the page title.

## Gallery

(All pictures provided by Adam X Photos)

The foggy clearance of the hills and the sun shining belowRear of the radars, suspended by rocky joints and steel beamsRadar 23 (front view)Another view of the radar dish from behindForest clearance of fogFoggy radarsTri beams centerpiece the signal recieverWonderous mountains of GiaginoClose up of the steel plated concave dishUpclose view of the main buildingParameter mountainsArrow identicating it's exact location from a distanceTreacherous winding roads sloping down the rocky hillsPanorama of the locationBackdrop view of a radar dish around the starry skies