Day 2 – The Chestnut Trail From Chiusa

Oct 9, 2022

Today’s Adventure

We awoke to rain and overcast skies with a forecast for more of the same, so we put on our rain gear and headed for the Bahnhof. We boarded a Trenitalia regional train for the short ride south to Chiusa (Klausen in German). We had seen a number of videos about Chiusa while researching this trip so it was good to see it in person, albeit in the rain.

It was a short stroll from the Chiusa Bahnhof to the old town pedestrian zone, which was much smaller than Brixen’s in terms of overall size as well as width of the streets. Perhaps that was a reflection of Chiusa’s smaller population, which at just over 5,000 is only about one quarter of Brixen’s. We could really feel the difference even accounting for the fact that it was fairly early on a rainy Sunday morning.

After crossing the old town we found our trail heading up the hill towards the Monastero di Sabiona or Säben Abbey. This trail climbed past a small family-owned castle (they didn’t invite us in for cappuccino – how rude!) and then continued up through the vineyards. The trail was steep, cobbled, and quite slick due to the rain so we had to be very careful with our footing. The good news was that in spite of the weather we were able to enjoy a nice view down into Chiusa, further into the Val Isarco, and across the valley to the Autostrada A22, the major road artery heading south towards Modena and north towards Austria via the Brenner Pass.

Once we arrived at the seemingly deserted castle-like abbey we wandered around the grounds, which occupied the top of distinct knoll that was in a commanding position over the surrounding valleys. We toured the well-patinated Chiesa Santa Croce before continuing our hike, this time down the backside of the knoll and away from the town of Chiusa.

We soon found the Chestnut Trail (Sentiero del Castagno in Italian or Keschtnweg in German), and headed north, back towards Brixen. The Chestnut Trail is a family-friendly and tourist-oriented path that follows an elevated and fairly level route midway up the western face of the Val Isarco. It winds through farms, vineyards, orchards, and several towns with country inns scattered along the way. The trail gave us a good tour of this section of the Val Isarco even with the cloudy, rainy conditions that persisted throughout the day.

After getting on the trail we got our first close-up look at the namesake chestnuts that were still on the tree or already fallen to the ground. They are very spiny and quite painful to handle if you’re not careful – ask me how I know! It’s an autumn tradition in this region to enjoy fire-roasted chestnuts (after removing the husks, of course) as a finish to your harvest meal or as a walking-around snack in town. Cindy and I enjoyed a brown bag of them while strolling around on our final day in Brixen just to see what they tasted like after all of the hype. We agreed that they were a bit of an acquired taste, largely due to the rather unusual dry and mealy texture.

Not long after we passed Velturno (Feldthurns in German) and the diminutive Castel Velturno we found the Gasthof Wöhrmaurer. This definitely seemed like a locals restaurant, at least based on the customers that we observed on this Sunday afternoon. We had hot lunch of traditional specialties from the region, but sadly the menu had to be altered a bit due to Stuart’s onion allergy. We also enjoyed our time inside the restaurant and out of the rain.

After lunch continued north on the Chestnut Trail. Just south of Brixen there was an open passage where we got a good look at the well-organized industrial zone, something that we had seen on maps and from our train and bus rides through that area. The planners did a really good job of grouping these business and service facilities in a way that helps to preserve the historic character of the city itself. We descended back into town and ended up right behind the Bahnhof, which became very familiar ground for us over the course of this visit. We walked home the back way through the old town pedestrian zone, had a gelato (of course), and then returned to our apartment.

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