Alto Adige and favourite tourist destination both in Summer and in Winter

The high Adige valley is one of the most fashinating in the Alps. It may be visited in any month, it is not only rich in sporting structures but also in castles, churches and abbeys, telling its millenary history of bordering region.

Open and fruitful, formed by a net-work of valleys, the Venosta Valley - Vinschgau in German - has always been cross-road for races and cultures. But above all it has been a pleasant place where to practice relax and idleness, as already in 1920 wrote Franz Kafka: “…I'm having a marvellous time in Merano, a mortal body could hardly bear more cares”. The valley is about 70 km long and follows the course of the Adige river from its springs at Resia Pass in Merano: this area is rich in churches and castles and is surrounded by snowed mountains almost reaching 4000 meters, witness of an intensive past. The valley, on the border line with Switzerland and Austria, has been for centuries one of the natural communication routes with the North. But it is also one of the seven tourist areas of Alto Adige and favourite tourist destination both in Summer and in Winter.

Our itinerary starts from the ancient Resia Pass, 1507 meters up in the High Venosta Valley, where there is the biggest morainal cone of Alps. Thanks to the variety of its charachteristics this is one of the most beautiful tourist places in Alto Adige which invites to take long walkings and to go on excursions to the mountains. About 500 meters East from Resia, springs the Adige river, the whole area is rich in "langlauf" ski slopes, among them the most known is the "Three Borders Slope" that allows a trip through Italy, Austria and Switzerland. On the Eastern edge of Resia lake we meet the most important centre of the area, Curon Venosta, that was build anew after the ancient village had been completely flooded by an artificial basin created in the Fifties. As evidence of the event, the ancient bell-tower of the fourteenth century church sticking out of the water (in the Town Hall a museum reconstructs the event): this is the most photographed image of the valley.

Taking again the central street of the valley, we meet Laces: the municipality richest in castles of the whole Alto Adige and one of the most sunny. It is called "European Orchard" because this is the place where more apples per person are cultivated. The village is dominated by the XIII century Castellobello (Nice Castle) with very interesting frescos in the chapel. And not far there is also Castel Juvial (Joyful Castle) built in 1278 and chosen in 1983 by the climber Reinhlod Messner as Summer residence and seat of his collection of Tibetan art and masks from all over the world. In the ancient part of Laces centre raises the church of di S. Spirito all’Ospedale with a big altar dated 1524. The church of the Saints Pietro and Paolo preserves the beautiful Western portal of the XIII century building, work of venostian stonecutters. Not far we find Tàrres, a village of ancient origins where there are three Romanic churches; the most important among them is the church of S. Michele in which the presbytery frescos go tother with extremely nice baroque altars.

Our itinerary ends up in Naturno, calm tourist resort in the orchards close to the mouth of Senales Valley. It is well known for its church of S. Proloco: built in the VIII and IX centuries and rebuilt in the XII, its outside walls are painted with a cycle of fifteenth-century frescos while inside we can see suprising frescos telling the life of the saint, these are among the most ancient of the region and are an important rest of the Longobard culture which had spread in the North-East.

Vacanza sui monti: le mete preferite del turismo sia estivo che invernale

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