Browsing Tag

South Tyrol

The Amazing Earth Pyramids of Renon/Ritten

I have a fear of heights. Standing at the cable car station in Bolzano/Bozen and staring up at the impressive mountain I was about to ascend made me a little queasy, but I hadn’t come all this way to miss out on a hike in the Dolomites.  Specifically, a hike to see the earth pyramids of Renon/Ritten.

We boarded the red gondola along with a group of young men laden with picnic provisions and camping gear and up we went. I choked back my apprehension and concentrated on the incredible views as we climbed higher and higher up the mountain toward SopraBolzano/Oberbozen.

It’s possible to take a bus or drive up the steep switchbacks to reach the town, but the cable car is much faster and easier.  It departs every four minutes and takes less than 15 minutes to reach the top– 1221 meters above Bolzano/Bozen.

The cable car deposits you right across the street from the historic narrow- gauge Renon/Ritten Railroad.  Be sure to buy a round trip combo ticket for the cable car and the railroad when you purchase your ticket at the Bolzano/Bozen station.

Trains run every 30 minutes during peak daytime hours. Climb aboard and enjoy the mountain views on the 20-minute ride from SopraBolzano/Oberbozen to Collalbo/Klobenstein.  We passed farms, cows, hikers and traditional Alpine A-frame homes as we whizzed by to the end of the line.

It’s a short walk from the station through a residential neighborhood to the center of Collalbo/ Klobenstein where lunch can be had a several restaurants.  Most seemed to offer the same traditional South Tyrol dishes but the two we had our eye on were closing shortly and wouldn’t seat us. 

It’s a pleasant stroll from the train station and fun to see all the carefully tended gardens along the way.

It was disappointing to be turned away from several restaurants because we arrived too close to the kitchen closing, but we kept searching!

We were directed to Zentral by a harried hostess and off we went in search of sustenance.   We were not disappointed and were soon tucking into a perfectly prepared weiner schnitzel and a tasty mushroom and polenta dish.  We had a crisp local white wine with the meal and finished up with some house made gelato. 

Menus in the Sud Tirol usually feature Austrian and Italian influenced dishes and are always seasonal.

Save room for dessert! Cakes and gelato are always on offer.

There is a mix of Austrian and Italian influences in this autonomous area of Italy, which was a part of Austria until the end of World War I. German is the predominant and preferred language in the Sud Tirol, though signage and menus are generally printed in German, Italian and sometimes English. You’ll find many people speak English, particularly in hotels, shops and restaurants here.

After a satisfying lunch we headed off towards our destination—Longomoso/Lengmoos and the earth pyramids of Renon/Ritten.  It’s an easy 30-minute hike from town to see these natural wonders, said to be Europe’s highest and most perfectly shaped examples of the boulder- topped pillars.

Paths are well-marked and part of the way to the earth pyramids is paved.

The views just get better and better as you continue your hike!

Called erdpyramiden in German or piramidi di terra in Italian, the conical pillars were formed 25,000 years ago from the moraine clay soil left behind when the last of the Ice Age glaciers covering the Valle d’Isarco melted away. It takes thousands of years for earth pyramids to form and the process is a dynamic one. 

In dry weather, the soil is rock hard, but rain softens the earth and carries away the soil.  The rocks left behind in the mud protect the clay soil beneath them, which rises from the earth to form the pyramids—capped by the boulders that allowed them to develop.  As older earth pyramids collapse, new ones form. They really are spectacular to see! 

These are some of the most impressive earth pyramids in the world and some of the oldest!

At the end of the trail from Collalbo/Klobenstein, there is a large viewing platform with panoramic vistas over the valley to the earth pyramids in the nearby gorge, with maps and helpful information in German, Italian and English. We were lucky to have the platform to ourselves much of the time, though during busy summer months the popular site draws crowds.

Keep going– enjoy the views and pose for a silly picture at the top.

Many natural sites in this area have maps that include highlights of the area and give a sense of place.

After enjoying the sensational view of the earth pyramids for quite some time, we began the hike back.  We came upon the Café Erdpyramiden along the way.

The cafe is a handy stop since there are no facilities at the viewing platform or along the trail to reach it.

It’s a great place to enjoy the view, have a drink and a snack and use the facilities!

A pleasant stroll back past historic buildings, churches, homes, a pond and grazing cows took us back to town and the train station.

Enjoy the walk back– it’s an easy trek.

Our timing was perfect and five minutes later we were chugging along toward home.

We wandered around SopraBolzano/Oberbozen, admiring the views and checking out lodging for a future trip before heading back down to Bolzano/Bozen on the cable car. 

We popped in the the Gloriette Guesthouse to check it out for a return visit to the area.

We had a nice wander around the town of Soprabolzano/Oberbozen before heading to the cable car.

We will definitely return to this spectacular area and its natural wonders and suggest you add it to your list, too. In the meantime you can enjoy the virtual view here.

An Afternoon with Otzi the Iceman

He’s an international man of mystery, media darling, and a murder victim. Otzi the Iceman was brutally killed about 5,300 years ago and is the oldest known natural human mummy in Europe. A German couple hiking the Otzal Alps discovered his body on September 19, 1991 on a glacier in Italy about 100 meters across the Austrian border — thus his nickname.  We spent an afternoon with Otzi, not far from his birthplace in the Dolomites.

Otzi’s final resting place is the South Tyrol Museum of Archeology in Bolzano Bozen, not far from where he was born and where his body was discovered 5,300 years later.

After a brief custody dispute— both Austria and Italy laid claim to Otzi–research on his mummified body began at Innsbruck University in Austria. He has found a final resting place at Italy’s South Tyrol Museum of Archeology in Bolzano Bozen.  Today, the entire museum is dedicated to Otzi and life in the Copper Age.  Visitors can peek through a small glass window to view Otzi’s body, which is kept in a climate controlled, sealed vault.  Be patient, there is always a line to see him.

Otzi’s body is preserved in a viewable, climate- controlled vault but signage asks visitors to be respectful and refrain from photographing his remains. This acrylic model is provided for photos.
Scientists have created a remarkably life-like reconstruction of Otzi, one of the world’s most fascinating murder victims and Europe’s oldest natural human mummy.

A 3-D reconstruction gives a surprisingly lifelike depiction of what Otzi would have looked like. He was believed to be 45 years old when he met his untimely death. At 5’3’’ and 110 lbs., he was short and stocky, but muscular. He wasn’t in the pink of health when his life was cut short, though.  He had tooth decay, parasites and H. pylori, which would have caused numerous gastric issues.  Scientists were able to retrieve and identify the contents of his stomach which included his last meal—red deer meat, unleavened bread and fruit and an herb called hop hornbeam.  He likely took that to ease his tummy troubles. His hair had high levels of arsenic and copper particles, possibly from smelting copper, which may also have contributed to his ill health. None of these things killed him though.

Otzi’s goat hide leggings, bearskin hat, and other garments were remarkably well preserved after 5,300 years entombed in a glacier.
Otzi’s leggings would have extended into his shoes for warmth and protection from the snow and rain.

The garments and accessories Otzi was wearing when he met his demise were remarkably well preserved by his years of glacial entombment.  His lambskin loincloth, goat hide coat and leggings, and bearskin hat are all on exhibit, along with what remains of his shoes with their cow hide laces.  His shoes are really something to see- made from bearskin soles, deer hide uppers and tree bark netting, they were lined with grasses that acted like socks and cushioned his feet for the long treks he made through the mountains.  

Bearskin, deerskin, tree bark netting and hay-like grasses went into the construction of his shoes. Here you can see the structural foundation as well as what remains of his well worn shoes.

Even his deerskin quiver and arrows survive.  Because of the variety of animal skins used in his clothing and accessories, researchers believe that Otzi kept and herded domesticated animals like sheep, goats and cows, earlier than was previously thought.

Scientists discovered blood, not his own, on Otzi’s goat skin coat, adding to the mystery around his murder.

He also had a grass cape with him, either to wear as a raincoat or to sleep upon—or maybe both.  Displays show how all of his garments fit together to protect him from the elements—pretty complicated!

Drawings indicate how Otzi would have dressed. Fitting each item together was a lot more complicated than you’d imagine.

Otzi liked ink!  He is in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the oldest person on earth to sport tattoos. His body is adorned with 61 of them made by rubbing charcoal dust into fresh wounds. These are certainly not the elaborate tattoos seen today—they’re mostly crosses and lines on his back, ribs, wrist and legs and may have been used for pain relief.

The copper head on Otzi’s axe came from far-away Tuscany, which meant he traveled widely or traded or both.

Researchers have been able to piece together a great deal about the life and times of Otzi the Iceman based on his clothing and the items found alongside him.  He had a copper-bladed axe, which would have made him a high-status individual.  The copper was from Tuscany, quite a distance away, so he traveled or traded or both. He also had a flint dagger from the Lake Garda area, arrows, incomplete shafts and longbow, plus a net.  Otzi was a hunter.  

The articles found near his body give us great insights into Otzi’s lifestyle and activities. A backpack frame, shown here, was one of many personal belongings discovered with him in 1991.

He had several wooden tools used to fashion clothes or utensils—he would have needed these to make repairs or construct needed items on his long treks.  He also had a birch bark cylinder likely used to carry hot embers for quickly starting a cook fire and a complex fire-starting kit. These would have been handy on his journeys for cooking and for warmth.  Otzi has shown us that people travelled more widely than previously believed during the Copper Age, trading goods, services and knowledge.

Visitors can examine Otzi’s clothing, weapons, even the contents of his last meal, and learn what scientists have finally determined was his cause of death.

Researchers know what the iceman wore and ate and likely what he did for a living, but mystery surrounded his murder until 2012.  Was he struck in the head with a blunt object? Stabbed? Shot in the back with an arrow? Was there a fight?  Or all of these things? Scrappy Otzi was definitely a hunter and a fighter. Blood from four different individuals was found on Otzi’s dagger, coat and on one of his arrows which could mean a battle. He had several broken ribs that had healed before death, and he had been struck in the head.  His brain had evidence of clots which could have been from blunt force trauma that then caused stroke or embolism.  He also had stab wounds on his hands. The likeliest cause of death was the arrow lodged in his left shoulder.  Finally, in 2012, researchers agreed that Otzi had bled to death from the arrow wound.

Otzi and the mysteries surrounding him have made him a popular media subject across the globe.

Otzi’s discovery made quite a stir worldwide and was also marked by controversy.  Once the significance of the find was reported, numerous people claimed to have found the body. The museum has an exhibit detailing much of the media coverage around him. Otzi is so scientifically important; the museum has a specific evacuation plan for him should a crisis arise that could damage him. He has opened a window into life in the Copper Age that would have remained closed, had those hikers not stumbled upon him back in 1991.

Helmut and Erika Simon, a German couple, were credited with finding Otzi’s body on the Tisenjoss Pass, just over the Austrian border in Italy, while hiking in the Otzel Alps.

In 2012 Otzi’s genome was sequenced using a bit of his hip bone, revealing he had brown eyes, type O blood, a predisposition to heart disease, was lactose intolerant, and may have had Lyme disease. His maternal line is extinct, but his paternal lineage is intact. In 2013, 19 Austrian men from a group of 3,700 tested, shared a unique genetic mutation with Otzi. Scientists believe that his descendants would have settled between the Dolomites and Sardinia— his genetic profile has much in common with Sardinians today —and that there are likely more of them alive today.

Our afternoon with Otzi was fascinating and we’d highly recommend a visit if you’re in the Bolzano Bozen area. For more information, click here.