Day 4 – The Churches of Val di Funes

Oct 11, 2022

Today’s Adventure

Blue skies and sunshine greeted us when we woke up on Tuesday. Unfortunately the forecast was for increasing clouds, so we left the apartment reasonably early, about 9:00 AM, to make the most of our day.

We started out on Bus 330 from the Bahnhof in Brixen. This bus took us eastward up a winding road that followed the bottom of the beautiful Val di Funes. We got off the bus in the small town of St. Magdalena and made a quick stop in the Tourist Bureau before hitting the trail.

The hike began along some small lanes and paved trails that took us up to the Chiesa di Santa Maddalena. This is one of two highly photogenic churches in the area that draw tourists in excessive numbers. This church and the smaller St. John (that we would visit later in the day) are both Instagram stars due to their dramatic settings in front of the Odles mountain group, a series of stone spires or needles that dominate the upper end of the Val di Funes.

The fall colors were beautiful today with the maples turning orange and red. We were hoping to see the area’s iconic larches turning gold during this visit to the Dolomites, but we found that the lower valleys and farm areas tended to have a surprising number of hardwoods. We were actually a bit early for the larches at this point in our five week adventure, but we’d see plenty towards the latter part of our trip.

From the Chiesa di Santa Maddalena we walked further up the hill to an overlook and then found the Panoramaweg or Panorama Trail. This trail took us west through some pastures and along the tree line until just above San Pietro where it headed down towards the valley floor. By now it was almost lunchtime so we stopped by the rather elegant Hotel Gsoihof to check out their menu. It turned out that they were not open for lunch even though the lobby was open and the tables were set – there simply wasn’t anyone around besides the large St. Bernard napping on the front terrace. One recurring theme of this trip was that some of the hotels and restaurants that we wanted to experience were closed for the shoulder season, i.e. those weeks between the departure of the summer hikers and the arrival of the winter skiers. Overall it was a good trade, though, because it meant that the trails were much less crowded.

We made the turn back up the valley to Santa Magdalena and found a nice table on the sun terrace at the Hotel & Restaurant Fines. This was one of the few restaurants in Val di Funes, but it was an excellent choice. The young brothers Fabian and Hannes have recently taken over the property and have upgraded and modernized both the restaurant and the menu. Cindy ordered the homemade ravioli with a ham garnish. I enjoyed a specially-ordered hamburger with local cheese and speck on a fresh sesame seed roll – the brothers offered this alternative as few of the standard menu options were compatible with my onion allergy.

After a relaxing lunch we strolled up the valley to see the famous (or is it ‘infamous’) Chiesetta di San Giovanni in Ranui, also known as the Church of St. John. It’s impossible to search Instagram or YouTube for Val di Funes without finding a picture of this small chapel standing proud in a large pasture with the stunning Odles in the background. What they usually fail to mention is that it’s such a popular spot that the farmer who owns the property had to put a high fence around the field to keep the tourists out. If you want to actually walk up to the chapel you need to pay 4 euro and go through a turnstile. When we were there a tourist bus had just dumped a load of tourists so a large group was swarming around the chapel and spoiling the photo op. Fortunately when we visited the Val di Funes again later in the week there wasn’t a crowd so we were able to get some decent photos from the free viewing platform near the parking lot.

It seemed to us that there was nowhere near enough infrastructure in this valley for the volume of tourists that visit, even during the off-season. Most of the tourists seem to arrive on large commercial tour buses, hop out for Chevy Chase Grand Canyon moment at the Church of St. John, and then hop back on their buses for their next stop, most likely to see Ötzi the Iceman in Bolzano. Very few of the tourists stay to actually support the local businesses so we were happy to be an exception to the rule.

We then caught a bus down the valley and back to Brixen. In a memorable twist, the bus was filled with young elementary school students on their way home from a field trip. The word “loud” doesn’t begin to describe that ride – I sure wish that I knew how to say ‘use your indoor voice’ in Italian!

To return to the main page for Brixen click here.

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