What a fantastic day. We took a loop ride through some of the surrounding vineyards and apple orchards and the very beautiful village of Kaltern and its lake, the Kalterer See.
Our route took us south from Bolzano and where the main Adige cycle trail meets up with the cycle trail that goes north west to Meran (Saturday’s ride coming up) there’s another fantastic converted rail trail that climbs into a higher valley on the west side of the Adige river and through the Kaltern wine region.
The entire route was spectacular and I’d recommend it for anyone who’s riding through this area. I would even take this route as an alternate way into or leaving Bolzano. As wonderful as the cycle route is along the Adige south of Bolzano, the ride through Kaltern is at another level. Simply marvellous.
At the confluence the Adige and Isarco rivers and starting to briefly head up the Adige towards Meran before we’ll head south west again towards Kaltern. Castle Firmian is above us, that’s tomorrows agenda, the main Messner Mountain Museum site.
Heading now along the Adige … still amazing cycling infrastructure. Even though it’s a Thursday, there were a LOT of day riders and other tourers on the trails.
Leaving the Adige Valley and starting to climb towards Kaltern. Endless apple orchards, most covered with netting to keep the birds away, all the way north to Meran. Snow covered high Alps on the horizon. That’s where we’re headed next.
We took a Quick Look inside the church in Kaltern. From the outside it was quite plain - walk in and it’s a different story!. There’s probably been some money around here for many many generations
And now back on the Adige/Isarco bike path heading north to Bolzano. This is a very very nice cycle route, but it seems a little pedestrian compared to what we just rode.
The Kaltern valley is on the other side of this ridge. Still riding north along the Adige river to Bolzano ( The Isarco river flows south from Brenner pass into Bolzano and then merges with the Adige that is flowing from the NW from Meran. Once they’re combined, the Adige wins the ‘name game’)
We made it back to Bolzano in time for a shower and an appertivo before heading out to dinner.
Our last two nights here have been in more ‘upscale’ places and we were looking for something a little more casual, but still very good. Ivan, our apartment landlord, left us a long list of his recommended places and both the previous places we went to, before we got his list, were on his list. That gave us confidence to pick our third place from his recommendations. So tonight that was Osterio Il Tinello, and it was just what we were looking for.
A nice 15 minute walk through the less touristy part of the old town and we were then seated in a covered outdoor patio in a courtyard away from any street noise. Wonderful.
Trigger Warning - I am attempting another ‘German Language Joke’. Browsing shop windows as we walked to dinner and we spotted this. Now is this a) a children’s craft book or b) some cheap bawdy pulp fiction or c) make up your own answer.
At Osteria Il Tinello. We didn’t exactly drink local. This comes from just about as far away as you can get and still be in Italy. A 2019 Aglianico del Vulture. There’s a good chance we cycled within 20 km’s of where this bottle was being fermented in November of 2019.
Still on an ‘old weird classics kick’. I was thinking how great it was to be out riding our bikes today and the first line of this song just popped into my head:
‘I rode my bicycle past your window last night’ and that was it.
2 weeks ago
2 weeks ago
2 weeks ago