Well if you don't like mountains, fresh air and walking switch off now because I am going to go on a bit about this one as it is one of the best 'holidays' we've ever had in one of the most beautiful places on the planet!. If you love hiking or biking then be sure to read the bottom half which gives more specifics on this aspect.
I'd been told back in 2015 'go to the Dolomites' but where? Its pretty big - Covering north Italy, Austria and southern Germany! When I tried to investigate where to go it became a rather laborious task and so back in April, while in Amsterdam, I contacted a UK holiday company called 'Inntravel' that specialised in family walking holidays. They couldn't help us, which turned out to be a good thing because after the conversation and failed booking I merely copied some of their itinerary and got it sorted ourselves (If you wanted to look at the holiday we were interested in it's on: https://www.inntravel.co.uk/holidays/Families/Italy/Witches-Wild-Folk-of-the-Dolomites?pg=sk)
The first thing you need to know about the area is how to get there. Innsbruck from Austria and Verona in Italy are the main starting points. We obviously came from Italy so continued on the train from Venice, via Verona and alighted in the small city of Bolzano. The other thing you need to know about this area is that the language is a mismash of German and Italian. Bolzano(Italian)/Bolzen (Ger) and the surrounds were for a long time classified as Austrian but after the first world war, the area was officially moved under Italian rule. As a result every town, road, station, menu etc is written in both languages. Bizarrely this was the first place we've been to where next to no English was spoken. It meant an immediate jump to my high school German, which got us round perfectly and I was even able to organise a taxi to take us to one place and our bags to another..but that's a later story.
Bolzano, is in the valley and apart from being the 'major' city in the area (if you can call it that!) is famous for wine growing (yes, we continued our personal wine tasting tour of Italy even when walking!) and for an 4500 year old man that was found in the 90s buried in the snow in the Dolomites. The museum of Otzi (iceman) is a major draw. The museum is in three languages (Eng/Ita/Ger) and the kids loved it. It really helped there was no-one in there (a bit like Bolzano) and we could stare though the small window into the fridge where he is kept for as long as we liked. I loved the acupuncture tattoos on his legs and back and the kids loved the history and recreation of the man and how he lived. The museum can be seen in about 1 - 2 hours leaving lots of time for Tyrollean bier and wurst!
The rest of Bolzano was quiet and without tourists except for an icelandic male choir who burst into song at the end of a victorious game. All the shops are here without the crowds and everyone gets around Bolzano on bikes, which can be hired for 3 euro for the day. Bikes do not come in Erin's size so instead we took a cable car to UberBolzan/ Suprabolzano (from here I'm going to give the German name and italian in brackets) and then an ancient tram to a small village of Klobenstein (Collalbo). We did about 3 hours walking in total (details below) and returned knackered to the lovely Hotel Citta Stadt in the city centre.
The things we loved about Bolzon were the lack of tourists, the main square and the change to Tyrollean architecture. Interestingly the Medici family from Florence made it here too (via one of the daughters or something) and there is a gallery that one can visit with yet more paintings etc!
From here we were heading to Kastelruth (Castelrotto), which is about 1/2 hour drive away and 1000 meters higher and is a town that accesses the Schlern (Sciliar) mountain range. I arranged over the phone for a taxi to pick us up at Bolzano station and take the bags to our next accommodation at 'Villa Kastelruth' but drop us off at Vols, a small village about 3 hours walk away from Kastelruth. It was only when we were in the taxi when a combination of gesturing hands and german that he fully understood that the bags weren't coming with us! He did, thankfully, exactly what we asked him to do, and dropped the bags at our new hotel and sent me photos to prove it!!
That was the morning we woke to the Brexit news and the driver and I talked about the Brexit shock. Steve thought it best we tell everyone we were from Australia rather than the UK from here on and the driver was even more impressed that Australians had made it to this area of the world.
Castelrotto is a very picturesque town and an excellent base for seeing the mountains. I wouldn't come here skiing but the town is big enough for a weeks stay in summer. It like the other villages are surrounded by the meadows of the mountains and we arrived just as the locals started to cut down the grass and make hay. Poor Steve. I feel the more I enjoy a location on this trip the more he suffers. This time his eyes spied the grass and his hay fever exploded. No amount of anti-histamines kept it under control and the kids and I thought he was going to remain in the room for the duration while we walked and swam in the enormous pool. He made it out though and was grateful for the explosive rain and thunder storms that came out of no-where and disappeared just as quick. The weather in the region certainly does change rapidly and while we had 30+ degree days we had 4 huge storms in the same 5 days. The area is known for it's witches ('Hex' in german) and legend has it the witches would bring in the storms. I can well believe it. The Scalia mountains are certainly frightening to look at and one of the walks we took, threw us pass many 'hex' meeting places.
While Brits must surely visit this area, during the week, we didn't meet any other english speaking people. I don't actually think we met anyone under the age of 60. Walking the dolomites in June is definitely a past time for the older folk. We caught a regular bus to Seis am Schlern to catch a gondola to the high peaks and while trying to buy tickets my pronunciation didn't come out right and I ended up asking for tickets to 'Scheisse am Schlern'. The kids couldn't understand the 'gasp' from the bus until I realised I'd just asked for tickets to 'Fuck am Schlern'. Some things you learn at school you aren't supposed to....We were definitely Australian from then on..not British....
The place we stayed at was fantastic. If you ever go..put it on your list. It's 3 star but really 4 with a huge pool, spa, sauna and we took a room that gave us spectacular views from two sides.
One sometimes forgets that Europeans are much more relaxed about the bodies and I of course had totally forgotten that many of our northern European friends sit naked in the sauna. So it was, that while Steve lay in the room with wet flannels over his eyes and I sat by the pool after a long walk, Kyran and Erin sat in the 'relax room'. Imagine their surprise (and horror) when 70+ years Swedish husband and wife walked out of the sauna stark naked, dried themselves off, before putting clothes on. I found Erin outside of our bedroom door slightly shell shocked. Kyran just thinks its all a bit weird but then the world is just a bit weird and old people are just wierder still...
What else about Castelrotto? I couldn't tell you about the food because we had half board which I think is typical of accommodation there. The food at our hotel was amazing with excellent healthy children meals and made it even more important that we walked a good few hours each day.
Castelrotto is very traditional and many folk still wear traditional clothes (I'm serious...you can buy lederhosen and the dresses in the shops!) also the whole region is very Catholic. You can't move without seeing a Crucifix, monument or statue and the churches are lovely. Our trip co-incided with some huge catholic feast day where the cannons went off every half hour from 6am till 9pm. After 3 hours of church, the locals did what all good Tyrolleans do and headed off to a beerfest in the town. Steve's eyes lit up with memories of Munich until I asked him what his intention were for the kids if we did 4 hours of drinking beer? We went for a long walk instead....
As for walking. Well in 7 days we walked about 100,000 steps. My feet and knees were knackered. The kids were amazing. While Steve and I had ran out of things to talk about after 5 minutes the kids conversed non-stop for several hours at a time. OhOne should think carefully before catching a bus and two gondolas to the top of a mountain before embarking on a 4 hours walk downhill if you want to protect the knees!
I was unable to find any maps in English for the walks and the ones from the information centre do not tell you how long the walks are. You just start the walk and it tells you as you go how long you have left!! This is a bit of a worry if like us, you have no-idea if it's a 1 hour or 5 hour gaunt. We were the least prepared walkers you've ever seen. Trainers, sunscreen and a bottle of water while everyone else had backpacks prepared for armageddon. We also were the only people without the 'walking poles'. I suggested to Steve its because we were the youngest not the fittest!! Oh and one should think carefully before catching a bus and two gondolas to the top of a mountain before embarking on a 4 hours walk downhill if you want to protect the knees!
I hated to leave. It was the perfect end to a great three weeks and has put Dolomites firmly at the top of my 'fav' pile.
The walks:
* We are not dawdlers. In Australia, if a walk says 4 hours we do it in about 3. On these Dolomite walks we shaved off about 5minutes of the 'walking time'!! I think the older people must add on hours !!
*Walks are well sign posted by numbers only. You need a map from the information office and don't veer off the path as Steve attempted. They link up with others based on their route and no details of roads etc are given.
*Not all paths are suitable for mountain bikes. Some are downright dangerous so mountain bikers need to get a different map (not sure where from!)
*Water is easily accessible everywhere on the walks. There are fountains and mountain taps in lots of places and after our first walk we realised we only needed two small bottles between us as we could easily refill.
*Everywhere closes for lunch (as in closes at 12 and opens at 3 or 3/30!!)
*We had a bus ticket that got us on the buses for free but we should have also bought some sort of gondola pass as these were very expensive when purchased individually! (25 euros for 4 each time)
*All those lodges on the mountains that you get coffees and lunch in winter are open in summer. Food is excellent and beers good. They all had playgrounds too. Not sure what happens to those in winter?!?!
Day 1
Gondola from Bolzano to Soprabolzano. Train to kloberstein. 45 minute easy walk to Earth Pyramids along track number 24. A 1 hour walk back to Kloberstein via the number 29 and 33 back up through meadows and woods. Lunch at the Post. 2 1/2 hour walk back to Soprabolzano via the number 35. Not much shade on a hot day
Day 2
Walk from Vols to Seis along the number 11(some follows the road which is not so much fun and in the sun) about 2 hours. Lunch in Seis .
1 hour walk to Castelrotto via number 7. Takes you through St Valentine and is a very steep ascent for 20 minutes followed by walking through working meadows and a gentle descent into Castelrotto
Day 3
Nothing!
Day 4
Walked around Castelrotto to see the monument and cannons which were making all the noise then the Marinzen chair lift for lunch at the restaurant and gentle walk down (1 1/2 hours) to Castelrotto via walk number 4.
Day 5
Bus to Seis.
Gondola to Compatsch
Another Gondola upto Bullaccia (this means we are now at 2174 meters)
Walked the PU to all the 'Hex' points and then took the number 8 down to Castelrotto 1060 meters). Very steep descent. Half way down, in the middle of the forest, there was a sudden clearing and a restaurant with playground called Schafstall. Insane but welcome. Had lunch and then back into the forest and to the bottom. Got on the bus at 10.45am and got home at 4.30 pm. Reckon we walked about 4 hours.
Day 6
Bus to Spitzbuhl chairlift.
Easy walk to Panorama and detoured to see the snow :). Meadows were sodden from previous rain so kept it easy and walked down to Compatsch. About 2 hours max. Bus home.
Day 7
Train to Verona!
