South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology
ModerateHome of Ötzi the Iceman
See the Copper Age man himself through a cold-cell window, with his clothes, axe and arrows — the story of a murder 5,300 years old.
BolzanoMuseumMust-see
Bolzano & the Dolomites, Italy
Ideal: 4–6 daysBest: Jun–Sep, Dec–MarPrice: Expensive
In 60 seconds
Bolzano & the Dolomites in 60 seconds
The Dolomites are the most dramatic mountains in Italy: pale limestone towers that glow pink at sunset, rising straight out of green meadows — a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Bolzano, the capital of South Tyrol, is the gateway, a bilingual city of arcaded streets, Tyrolean inns and Italian espresso, where the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology keeps Ötzi, the 5,300-year-old man found in a glacier in 1991. From the city, cable cars and valley roads lead to the Renon plateau, the vast meadows of the Alpe di Siusi under the Sassolungo, the Odle peaks of Val di Funes and Seceda above Ortisei. Walk hut to hut in summer and eat canederli, speck and apple strudel; ski in winter. Food here is Alpine and Italian at once. Four days or more.
MountainsUNESCOSkiing
Best for
- Hiking
- Nature
- Food
Known for
- The Dolomites
- Ötzi the Iceman
- Alpe di Siusi
- Val di Funes
Skip if
You want Italy of piazzas and Renaissance art — South Tyrol feels Austrian, and the reason to come is the mountains.
Your match
Choose a few travel interests and we will show how well Bolzano & the Dolomites fits them. Choose interests
See
Must experience
The things that would make the trip incomplete without them.
Alpe di Siusi
Europe's largest high-alpine meadow
Rolling pastures under the Sassolungo and Sciliar; ride the cable car up from Siusi or Ortisei and walk between huts.
Seiser AlmHikingMeadows
Val di Funes
A valley below the Odle peaks
The little churches of Santa Maddalena and San Giovanni in Ranui against the jagged Odle — the Dolomites' classic picture.
VillnößHikingView
Seceda
ExpensiveA tilted ridge above Val Gardena
Cable cars from Ortisei rise to a grassy ridge that drops away in a sheer edge towards the Odle spires.
OrtiseiCable carView
Eat
Where to eat
A short list, kept short on purpose. Each entry answers one question: when is this the right choice?
More places to eat
Too few picks yet for their own heading, so they share this list.
Vögele
ModerateOld Tyrolean inn in Bolzano
Wood-panelled rooms and South Tyrolean classics — canederli, goulash and fried potato pastries.
BolzanoCanederliTyrolean
Beyond the obvious
Hidden gems
Less obvious, rarely queued for, and usually the part people remember.
Renon plateau & earth pyramids
A sunny plateau above Bolzano
A cable car and a little narrow-gauge tram climb from the city to meadows, villages and strange earth pillars with stones on top.
RenonCable carWalks
Orientation
Neighbourhoods
How the city is actually divided, and what each part is for.
Bolzano old town
Arcades and Piazza Walther
The Laubengasse arcades, a daily fruit market and the Gothic cathedral; a Christmas market in December.
Stay
Where to stay
Areas rather than hotels — pick the right one and the rest follows.
Bolzano
ExpensiveCity base with trains
Good for a first night and rainy days; the mountains are a bus or drive away.
RestaurantsTrains
Val Gardena & Val di Funes
ExpensiveMountain hotels and farm stays
Stay in the valleys to be on the trails early.
HikingSkiing
Practical
Know before you go
- Getting in
- Trains from Verona reach Bolzano in about 1½ hours and from Innsbruck in about 2.
- Getting around
- Buses and cable cars reach most valleys; a car gives freedom, but summer roads and car parks fill early.
- Languages
- German and Italian are both official; Ladin is spoken in some valleys. Place names come in two or three versions.
- When to go
- June to September for hiking (huts open from mid-June), December to March for skiing.
- Taste locally
- Speck, canederli, schlutzkrapfen, apple strudel, Lagrein and Gewürztraminer.
Plan this trip — useful links
Context
History in 5 minutes
Enough to make what you are looking at legible.
- c. 3300 BC
Ötzi dies high in the Ötztal Alps; his body is found in the ice in 1991.
- 1919
South Tyrol passes from Austria to Italy after the First World War.
- 2009
The Dolomites are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
Further out
Nearby escapes
Worth a day if you have one to spare.
Tre Cime di Lavaredo
Three great towers in the eastern Dolomites
A loop walk round the three north faces, one of the finest in the Alps.
2 hrs by carHikingIcon