La discesa finisce al bivio.

Because discesa is a feminine singular noun, so it takes the feminine singular definite article la.

• la discesa = the descent / the downhill stretch
• If the noun were masculine singular, you would usually see il instead.

Also, Italian uses the definite article more regularly than English, so la is completely natural here.

Discesa comes from the idea of going down. Depending on context, it can mean:

• descent
• downhill section
• slope
• way down

In a sentence like this, it often refers to a stretch of road, path, or route that goes downhill.

Finisce is the third-person singular present tense of finire.

So it means:

• it ends
• it finishes

Here the subject is la discesa, which is singular, so finisce matches it:

• La discesa finisce... = The descent ends...

Because finisce describes a general fact or current state: the descent ends at the fork.

By contrast, è finita means has ended / is over, which focuses more on completion.

So:

• La discesa finisce al bivio = the downhill stretch ends at the fork
• La discesa è finita = the descent is over / has ended

In directions or descriptions of places, the present tense is very common in Italian.

Al is the contraction of a + il.

• a = at / to
• il = the
• a + il = al

Italian normally combines these into one word.

So:

• al bivio = at the fork

This is very common:

• al parco = at the park
• al museo = at the museum

Because bivio is a masculine singular noun.

So it takes:

• il bivio
• a + il = al bivio

If the noun were feminine singular, then you would get alla:

• alla stazione = at the station

Bivio means a fork, junction, or point where a road/path splits into two directions.

It is commonly used for roads, paths, and routes.

So al bivio means at the fork or at the junction.

In this sentence, it is best understood as at the fork.

With finire, Italian often uses a to mark the point where something ends:

• La strada finisce al ponte = The road ends at the bridge
• Il sentiero finisce al lago = The path ends at the lake

So al bivio gives the endpoint of the descent.

Yes. It follows a very standard Italian pattern:

• subject: La discesa
• verb: finisce
• place/end point: al bivio

So it is a straightforward sentence structure, similar to English:

• The descent ends at the fork

Yes, very naturally. In Italian, finire is often used for things like:

• roads
• paths
• descents
• stairways
• sections of a route

Examples:

• La strada finisce qui. = The road ends here.
• Il sentiero finisce nel bosco. = The path ends in the woods.
• La salita finisce al rifugio. = The climb ends at the refuge.

So La discesa finisce al bivio sounds completely normal.

It is pronounced roughly dee-SHEH-za in standard Italian.

A few helpful points:

• di sounds like dee
• sc before e or i sounds like sh
• so discesa has the sh sound in the middle

So the middle is not pronounced like English sk, but like sh.

Yes. Terminare can also mean to end, so:

• La discesa termina al bivio

is grammatical and natural.

Still, finisce is very common and everyday. In many contexts, finire and terminare are both possible, but finire often sounds a bit more ordinary and conversational.