Day 5 – Oberbozen & The Ritten Plateau

Oct 12, 2022

Today’s Adventure

We caught a Trenitalia regional train from Brixen down the Val Isarco to Bolzano, about a half-hour ride. This was our first visit to Bolzano, the regional capital, but we were only passing through. From the Bahnhof we walked a couple of blocks down the Via Renon to the base station for the cable car that would take us on a long, scenic ride up to Oberbozen (Soprabolzano in Italian) on the Ritten Plateau. Oberbozen is the starting point for a small tourist-oriented tramway called the Rittnerbahn that services various stops along a four mile route between Oberbozen and Klobenstein (Collalbo in Italian).

At Oberbozen we found the trailhead for Trail 26 and started off on what turned out to be a long hike through the woods – a bit of a change from the open and rocky hikes that we normally associate with the Dolomites. The trail offered occasional big views over Bolzano and down into the valley with nice fall colors all around. We also had good views of the iconic Sciliar formation, a landmark that we enjoyed from many angles on the Alpe di Siusi during our earlier stay in Ortisei.

We followed this trail to an intersection with the local Keschtnweg or Chestnut Trail, where we headed east and continued on to the small town of Unterinn. At this point we both agreed that the trail had been strenuous and not overly scenic so we elected to use our Südtirolmobil passes to catch a bus for the balance of our morning hike to the town of Klobenstein.

At Klobenstein we tried to have lunch at the popular Rittnerstube, but it was unexpectedly closed. We were both kind of tired and rather hungry by this point so we consulted our knowledgeable travel companion (Stuart’s iPhone) to see what else was nearby. We found a highly-rated restaurant, the Törggelestube Pfoshof, about a mile away so off we went. We had a nice lunch at a covered table on their outdoor dining terrace, which offered a big view westward over the valley towards Sciliar and the Rosengarten.

After lunch we hiked to the Fermata Weidacher, a Rittnerbahn station near Klobenstein, where we hoped to catch a ride back to Oberbozen. Unfortunately when the train arrived a few minutes later it was packed to overflowing with unmasked people, so in the interest of COVID safety we elected to walk back to Oberbozen instead. We followed the Freud-Promenade, a very pleasant and surprisingly level walking trail that wandered through some farmland and residential areas. It also passed a very low key but very high end resort called the Adler Lodge (https://www.adler-resorts.com/en/adler-lodge-ritten/299-0.html). The trail was named after Dr. Sigmund Freud, who spent his 1911 summer holidays in a hotel at Collalbo. I wonder what Freud would have to say about such a tentative and somewhat desperate connection!

From Oberbozen we rode the cable car back down to Bolzano and arrived just in time to catch a regional train that would take us back to Brixen. Once more we found the Südtiromobile app to be extremely valuable for our ad hoc style of touring!

To return to the main page for Brixen click here.

To return to the main page for the entire trip click here.