Nature Park Fans & Hiking Lovers

In Southern South Tyrol you will find South Tyrol's southernmost nature park: The TRUDNER HORN NATURE PARK with its rich variety of Mediterranean flora and fauna. We recommend: Guided theme tours through the Nature Park. Another area worth seeing is the marsh area around Lake Kaltern with more than 100 bird species.

The BLETTERBACHSCHLUCHT, "South Tyrol's largest canyon", at the feet of the Weißhorn (the southernmost peak of the Dolomites) is a fascinating, geological "amphitheatre" created by movements in the earth's crust millions of years ago, by the ice ages and the build-up of sediments as well as by hundreds of thousands of years of erosion.

The new GEO trail and the Geoparc Bletterbach Info Centre in Aldein (open starting from May 2006) provide greater insight into its geology. Geological tours every week starting from May 2006. A smaller "canyon" is located also in the romantic Rastenbach gorge in Altenburg, near Kaltern.

Southern South Tyrol is above all an Eldorado for hiking. From March to November you will find many easy-going or challenging hiking destinations.

• Dürerweg: due to the flooding of the Etsch Valley in 1494, the famous painter Albrecht Dürer chose the path over the mountains towards Buchholz on his first journey to Italy. The path crosses the Laukas Valley, carries on to Buchholz and upwards to Sauchsattel and onto the Holy Lake (1200m) and then to Cembra, Faver and Castle Segonzano and the Earth Pyramids of Segonzano. All along the path you can find stones with his initials at spots where he painted pictures. Start at the Klösterle near Neumarkt, passing Buchholz near Salurn to the Cembra Valley.

• The Rittner Theme Walkway gives you some insight into the characteristics of the high plateau: from the fascinating coming and going of the earth pyramids, to the old Emperor roads and the “invention” of the summer resorts.