Alpine Overload

We hate to get redundant with superlatives and overused adjectives, but the little village of Kastelruth we visited at the end of October after our time in Bolzano is yet another truly idyllic little town in a storybook landscape. We couldn’t help but be very jealous and wonder once again how these people were allowed to live here and how lucky they were. While Kastelruth is only half an hour or so from Bolzano, it seemed a world away. The landscape around our German guest house was dotted with pastures and farms with spectacular views of the Dolomites in the background.

Yes, this really was the view from the balcony outside our room. If you’re imagining an accompanying soundtrack featuring cows with bells, then you would be spot on. We’ll actually get to that later. One feature you might notice that we didn’t crop out of the photo is the crane. This is a prosperous tourist destination still somehow holding onto its small-town charm. There was plenty of hotel construction going on in the region as it will host the next Winter Olympics. Even small towns on the fringe of the bigger ski destinations are getting ready to host the world. Let’s just hope the world leaves the original character behind when it leaves.

In Kastelruth, the center of town is the entire town. We took a short town tour where we visited the church in the center and the lovely and immaculate cemetery behind the church.

These are the most elaborate and well-cared-for grave sights we’ve seen. However, if you think this is rare, it isn’t. We actually encountered this type of memorial cemetery in other parts of Northern Italy. It really is unique and amazing.

Another iconic feature of the town is the elaborate decoration on many of the buildings. The town hall was a great example.

From our room, we could also see the main town square anchored by the church and clock tower. Little did we know that the bells in the tower worked and rang all the time. We’re talking from 5am until 10pm with freeform bell ringing at odd times outside the once every fifteen minute cadence.

We were in Kastelruth during the off season, so two of the three restaurants in town were closed until the ski season, so we enjoyed more meals at Gasthof Toni than we had intended. Again, an example of that unique cross between the Italian and the German in the Südtirol region. Lucky for us, the pre-Olympic development meant that the town also now had its own self-service laundry in the lower level of a new guest house. There are some positive advantages for commercial development. Finding laundry on the road can be challenging. We spent an exciting Friday evening with the dryers and a bottle of wine.

Aside from the idyllic setting, alpine charm, and laundry facilities, we based ourselves in Kastelruth because of the town’s proximity to Alpe di Siusi and the ski town of Cortina, which hosted the 1956 Winter Olympic Games and was featured prominently in For Your Eyes Only. These are essential stops on any tour of the Italian Dolomites.

Day Trip to Cortina

So, aside from the dramatic ski antics of James Bond in For Your Eyes Only, we don’t have much to report about Cortina. After a very long drive there (2+ hours), driving through town looking for some place to park (seemed like another 2 hours), and attempting to find someplace open for lunch (everything closes between 2 and 7 in Italy), our visit to Cortina was actually quite a pain. I think we made the town loop 3 times before we realized the parking lots were free and there were only a couple of bars serving pizza open. We ate and left. Not a memorable visit.

However, we’ll never forget the drive there and back. The scenery was just amazing due to the dramatic color changes of the larch and beach trees superimposed on the Dolomites. There really isn’t much else to say, so we’ll just share a whole bunch of pictures from the drive. And when we say “from the drive,” it is literal. Most of these were taken by Ande out the window of the car with her phone while we were moving. She has become the Queen of motion photography and captured some beautiful scenery under difficult circumstances.

As you can see from the previous post about Bolzano and our road trip to Cortina, we saw a lot of really amazing meadows and mountains. However, we really didn’t get a chance to get close up. On our second day in Kastelruth, it was time to lace up the boots and get out into nature for something more close-up and personal.

An Alpine Afternoon

Kastelruth’s neighbor is the alpine village of Alpe di Siusi. We were in the mood for a hike, and the highest and largest alpine meadow in Europe surrounded by views of Dolomite peaks was just what we hoped to find. We actually bought new hiking boots for the trek having left ours in Colorado during our summer trip break and were ready for some serious Alpine activity. The connector to the Alpine meadow was another lovely gondola ride up the mountain. There is actually an extensive network of gondolas and ski lifts across the meadow area used for both hiking and skiing. Unfortunately, as we were here in off season (basically from mid-October through the first week in December) most of them were closed for maintenance. Oh well, we made it work and the fall colors were a great trade-off.

What we actually found at the top wasn’t a challenging hike at all, but rather a huge meadow and a pleasant walk along cow-filled pastures to an excellent German smokehouse with an awesome outdoor patio with spectacular views. It was about as far from a real mountain hike as we could have gotten, but we’re not complaining.

We alluded to the cows with bells. Well, we ran upon a rather friendly group of girls ringing as they grazed along the trail. This one actually came to Ande and insisted on attention. Turns out that the cows in the area produce two million gallons of milk every year, which is shipped to Bolzano to make cheese. These aren’t a few stray cows, but part of an enormous milk-producing enterprise who get to enjoy the meadows while they work.

The alpine meadow is actually a network of farms and houses connected by a road served by public transportation. “Hikers” who get tired or too full of food and beer at the Rauch Hutte can simply wait along the road and catch the bus back to the gondola. The views waiting for the bus don’t suck.

Here are a couple more pictures of the views on our hike to a most excellent lunch.

Our destination for lunch was as lovely as the scenery along the way there. We reached the Rauch Hutte (Smoke House) where we enjoyed beer, wine, and an array of smoked meat and cheeses. Our hard work on the long strenuous walk paid off. Haha.

Even though we had reached late October, the weather was fantastic and we didn’t want to leave the patio.

What, you ask, could make this Alpine adventure even more idyllic. Lest you vomit from the unbelievable story-book charm, how about we throw in an alpine horn group to serenade the dining guests on this magical day?

All good things come to an end. We did eventually have to give up our table and hike back through the cows to the gondola. It was a lovely day if not the type of exercise we had anticipated when we started out. Nobody was complaining. We achieved a full dose of Fall color and Dolomite scenery, but we weren’t done. We still wanted to get in some serious hiking, so we continued our tour in another area in the Dolomites further southeast. More alpine Italian scenery to come.