Trentino-Alto Adige
‘There is always Italy.’
With all my original travel plans cancelled due to COVID-19 I took the opportunity to go on a hiking trip to the Alps. I drove to the Reschenpass/Passo di Resia between Austria and Italy in the province of Trentino-Alto Adige or Trentino-South Tyrol. Beyond that I didn’t really have a plan. The pass was a bit underwhelming so I drove onwards to a small camping place in Trafoi, just below the mighty Passo Stelvio. Camping Trafoi. Via Tre Fontane, 1, 39029 Trafoi BZ, Italy.
The camping is a cosy hikers’ place. It also attracts bikers who are drawn to Trafoi for the 48 needle curves of the Passo Stelvio on the eastern side. Camping Trafoi also is close enough to the mountains to venture into the mountains directly from the camping.
20 July 2020
The first day I hiked up to Goldsee, about 1,2 vertical kilometres. From Goldsee you can follow the Goldseeweg with magnificent views leading to Forcola refuge, which is located about 700 metres above Trafoi. The whole round trip takes about 9 hours if you are in no hurry.
In the left of the photo the Stelvio pass from a walker’s perspective,
Goldseeweg between Goldsee and Forcola refuge.
21 July 2020
The second day in Trafoi the weather was less than ideal. I walked to Berglhütte/Refugio Borletti (2188 m.) for coffee and cake but the afternoon passed by while hiding from the rain in the village.
I learned that Sigmund Freud received a message of the suicide of one of his patients, struggling with sexual problems, while staying in Trafoi, which lead him to his analysis of the Signorelli parapraxis by linking Signorelli to Botticelli and Boltraffio. Freud’s analysis seems like an outdated word game to me. Somehow the bottom line is always Tod und Sexualität.
Ötztaler Alpen
22 July 2020
The last day in Trafoi I drove to the small resort village Kurzas, 39020 Maso Corto, Bolzano, Bozen (2.011 m), just past Lago di Vernago, almost 1,5 hours by car from camping Trafoi. I walked from Kurzras to the Schutzhaus Schöne Aussicht - Rifugio Bella Vista (2842 m), a hike of about 800 vertical metres.
In 1991, just on the other side of the mountains, a body was discovered in the melting ice. Amazingly the person had died around 3300 BC. The body was well preserved and contained a treasure trove of information about the living conditions of this dead person who lived more than 5300 years ago. Even his full genome has been sequenced. Kurzas is not the correct starting point if you want to visit the actual Ötzti Fundstelle. The mountain ridge between Bella Vista and the Ötzti Fundstelle cannot be hiked.
Rifugio Bella Vista.
Fried potatoes and egg at the rifugio.
Above is the mountain ridge behind which Ötzi was discovered. It seems like a very remote place but from the valley it’s only half a day’s scramble. The photo below shows the foot path, which connects modern Italy with the Ötztaler Alpen in Austria over a mountain pass. Only a small stone hut marks the border.
Ötzi lived in the chalcolithic when in Europe the first metal tools were crafted from copper. Later it was discovered that by adding tin you can make bronze, which is harder than both copper and tin. A 99,7% pure copper axe was found near Ötzi. This must have been a very valuable tool. The copper mould was made from ore mined in South Tuscany.
The mummy is now on display at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy.
Passo dello Stelvio (2.758 m.)
The Passo dello Stelvio is somewhat famous. The pass was originally built by the Austrian Empire (1804 to 1867) in the 1820s to connect the Austrian province of Lombardy (currently Italy) with the rest of Austria. After 1867 the Austrian Empire was succeeded by Austria-Hungary and in World War I the pass saw some heavy fighting due to its strategic importance. Italy entered the war aiming to annex the territories of present-day Trentino and South Tyrol. After the war the pass lost its strategic importance.
23 July 2020
Today the pass on Route SS38 is famous with cyclists and motorcyclists. Since my next destination were the Dolomites I didn't need to cross the pass but decided to drive my car up the pass nonetheless just for the adrenaline kick. How could I not? In 2008 the TV show Top Gear declared the Stelvio Pass in Italy one of the best driving roads in Europe. I am macho enough to not let that opportunity pass.
It was a thrilling experience indeed, especially because the road was quite busy with countless motor bikes, cyclists, other cars, campers and even the occasional line bus. Driving uphill each corner is a blind corner, because only at the last moment you’ll see oncoming traffic. The only two gears you will need are first and second gear. It takes about half an hour to reach the top.
The pass itself has several tacky tourist shops. I thought my car deserved a “Passo Stelvio” sticker for the rear window, but only eleven days after my holiday somebody crashed into the rear of my car when I was standing still in a traffic jam on the motorway near Amsterdam. My Renault Clio IV Estate was a total loss. I thought it was a bit ironic, having completed the 48 switchbacks (and many more mountain passes in Italy and Switzerland) without a scratch and then my car being totalled by just being stationary.
My focus on this trip was not on food but this clear broth with Speckknödel in a restaurant on Stelvio pass was just perfect. With all the corona measures still in place I didn’t want to visit restaurants indoors. I mostly cooked in front of my tent and had lunches at mountain huts if I could sit outside.
