Day 14 – A Visit To Merano & Tirolo

Oct 21, 2022

Today’s Adventure

Friday’s adventure was a visit to the historic spa town of Merano and the nearby village of Tirolo (Dorf Tirol in German). The former enjoys a surprisingly warm and almost Mediterranean climate that helps to explain the beautiful gardens and robust agriculture in the area. The latter is set high on the valley wall overlooking Merano and is home to a lovely restored medieval castle. Cindy and I would soon discover that both are popular tourist destinations, perhaps to their detriment.

Merano is nominally west of Brixen and not terribly far away as the crow flies, but due to the geography of the intervening mountains, some of them topping out 10,000 feet above sea level, we had to go south to Bolzano and then head back north to get there. It was a scenic ride through the valleys that took less than an hour and half on a Trenitalia regional train. We timed our travel carefully so that we could take advantage of a direct train from Brixen to Merano without the usual transfer in Bolzano, so that made the trip even easier. From Merano we rode a local transit bus up the hill to Tirolo where we found the trailhead for our hike.

It was a cloudy, overcast day with a few spits of rain and some light misting. In spite of that our walk from Dorf Tirol provided us with lovely views of the diminutive Castel Brunnenburg as we wound our way through the vineyards to the Castel Tirolo (Schloss Tirol in German). It was an interesting walk that included a stone tunnel shared by occasional car traffic, so you didn’t linger to admire the masonry. The Castel Tirolo is sited on top of a massive rock promontory with views down into Merano and across the entire Val d’Adige. The grounds were adorned with brightly-colored modern art pieces because, after all, we’re in Italy. Overall the site is beautifully preserved and carefully restored. We especially admired the dramatically lit indoor exhibit of a chapel excavation in process just below the castle.

We wandered around the exterior of the castle and then continued our walk on Trail 26 to the Chiesa di San Pietro. This ancient chapel is built on a site where churches have stood since the 5^th century. The current structure, dating to the 15^th and 17^th centuries, features remnants of beautiful frescoes on both the interior and exterior walls. There were also some awesome exterior doors featuring fascinating craftsmanship of wood and iron.

After leaving the church we followed the trail to the Schloss Thurnstein, a small castle turned into a boutique hotel. From there we turned downhill to find the first official Waalweg of the day. We would follow Waalwegs – a network of ancient, restored, and still operational irrigation canals – most of the way back down into Merano. The best known, or perhaps most frequently Instagrammed Waalweg is the Tappeiner Promenade, which took us back through a series of switchbacks and stairs to the main pedestrian zone in Merano.

Merano was one of the larger towns that we visited on this trip and we found that we couldn’t simply wing it to our lunch destination. A quick look at our on-line mapping tool help us to find the Forsterbräu Merano, the biergarten for the nearby Forst brewery (Stuart’s favorite Italian beer). For lunch Cindy ordered the weisswurst with white slaw and speck garnish, which was served with a brezel. Stuart had his last Wiener Schnitzel of the trip. On our way out of the restaurant we stopped at the front desk and bought a souvenir ballcap, which was amazingly cheap at only seven euros!

After lunch we strolled the famous riverfront promenade that runs in front of the spas and casinos that helped to put Merano on the map. We enjoyed a gelato from a kiosk midway along the promenade on our way back to the Bahnhof. From there we caught a regional train back to Brixen. The train was quite full with both tourists and students, the latter apparently heading home for the weekend given the numerous roller bags, backpacks, and duffel bags.

What can I say about Merano and Tirolo – they were both places that we very much wanted to see based on our web research but for whatever reason neither place really clicked for us. Maybe it was a combination of the overcast weather and the heavier than usual Friday traffic with the fact that we were both just a bit tired after a very full month of adventures. It might also have been because both places were quite crowded and filled with tourists, perhaps more so than anywhere else that we visited on this trip, and that’s just not our thing. We’re glad that we went, but if we went back it would need to be mid-week and in better weather.

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