Table of contents

• Out and about in South Tyrol To click your tongue
• The calm beckons
• The side valleys are worth it
• There and away
• Info

Daams

to travel

On the way: South Tyrol

Out and about in South Tyrol
To click your tongue

Lush alpine passes and lovely side valleys, a mild climate and German often as your mother tongue – you quickly feel at home in Italian South Tyrol.

Klaus H. Daams

08/29/2013

Start: 9, 8, 7, 6… 29, 30, 31… Here the numbered turns of the Stilfser Joch, there the rev counter bars of Honda’s Crosstourer. Driving by numbers at the highest level. The queen of the mountain passes climbs up to the yoke on her eastern ramp in 48 serpentines. A real challenge for the heavy 1200, which is not necessarily the champ in the tight bends, but scores on the intermediate straights and makes up to 36 bars – equivalent to around 9000 tours – twitch like Vitali Klitschko a jab with his left leading hand. How do the verses of my “Stilfser Song” sound from above, from the 2757 meter high pass? Klaus is already waiting for me there. He came with a KTM 690 Duke, together we want to take South Tyrol among the so different motorcycles. While they are sniffing each other, the drivers move into their reserved room in the “Tibet Hut”. The inn, located a little away from the summit plateau, is an ideal area to enjoy the rollercoaster thrill on the third highest paved road in the Alps after or before the daily invasion of the “highest fairground in Europe”, even if you have to get up early for it.

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Shortly after six the sun sets the firmament on fire behind the peaks of the Ortler massif. We like to burn with you and do a little training session on the serpentine parquet before breakfast. Which leads to Klaus grinning diabolically at me from time to time like Lance Armstrong once did to Jan Ulrich. Because while my Moby Dick usually takes the turns a little further, the orange swordtail likes to pierce the inside. Less than two hours later the first mobile homes crawl uphill like a snail, easy to see over coffee on the panorama terrace of the “Tibet Hut”.

The calm beckons

Daams

Curve freaks get their money’s worth.

All luggage on board and via Prad down to the Etsch valley. The traffic on the SS 38 towards Merano is annoying. What good is it to overtake five cars in a row when you have another 4995 in front of you? The only way to do this is to use the blinker on the right, and off to Martell Valley. Another world. Strawberry scent instead of diesel smoke, plus Serpentini and Tornanti again between the red-dotted fields. The lane dangles beautifully and narrowly around craggy rock, hugs the turquoise shimmering, damp skin of the access reservoir like a spaghetti strap. Incidentally, it’s called Lago di Gioveretto in Italian, which just happens to bring us to the subject of language and history. Since this chapter is much more extensive and complex than, let’s say, the manual of a Ducati Multistrada peppered with all electronic assistance systems, just this much: South Tyrol, in Italian Alto Adige, was split off from the Austrian Tyrol after the First World War and became the northernmost Province of Italy. This received autonomy status in 1972 – with German and Italian as equal official languages; there is also Ladin as a dialect. If you want to dig deeper into the topographical and geological secrets of the Martell Valley, walk at the end of the road to Butzenspitze and Monte Cevedale.

Back march, march – and from the SS 38 straight off into the next side valley, the Schnalstal. Even without Otzi, who rested here 5300 years under the eternal ice and has now found a new home in the South Tyrolean Archaeological Museum in Bolzano, a worthwhile detour. Whether up to Katharinaberg, where on a rocky plateau a pointed church tower sticks into the sky like the index finger of God, whether branching off again into Pfossental, where the “Jagerrast” inn serves up sweet strawberry roulades, whether through the long curves at the Vernagt reservoir, where suddenly Deer cross in order to jump into their own forest swimming pool: “It’s best not to write anything about it so that everything stays so nice and quiet.” One of the two Klause thinks. The other thinks: You can catch mice with Schnalser Speck.

The side valleys are worth it

Daams

The journey through the Martell valley at the Zufritt reservoir surprises with grandiose views.

Always follow the signs for the Passeiertal and Timmelsjoch. The 2491 meter high pass is officially open in summer from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and is a welcome bedtime treat. A warming camp can be found on the way back to Moos in the “Hochfirst” inn. Until woken up by the early trumpet players, led by a bassy HP2 and a hoarse, rattling Speed ​​Triple, who blow to the summit storm. We’ll take our time with this today, for the time being we will have a verbal conversation with the landlady. Alberta Pohl grew up “there behind the mountains in Pfelders”, was a helper on the farm as a girl and has “always” done her work at the inn. Foreigners subsidized by the state, the Greek crisis, the reformed Italian tax system – every change means a huge problem. The changeover when changing mopeds isn’t quite as difficult as the Crosstourer and Duke swap drivers today.

The 690 rushes forward as light as a feather, as if it wanted to chisel the creed of “less is more” into the curving asphalt. Once more up to the Timmelsjoch, from where, from here toll is required, cross-border descends into the Austrian town of Solden. D rather not. Better to go straight to the next South Tyrolean fun, the Jaufenpass. Oh, if I could buy the mountains as well: the KTM would be mine. And who gives us more time? For example for pretty medieval Sterzing.

Or for all the side valleys that end up as dead ends, but instead of through traffic, there is a lot of silence flowing through them. A former military road winds its way up from Stein to the Pfitscher Joch, ideal for light equipment.

There and away

Daams

The Timmeljoch attracts with the incredible panorama.

The 2211 meter high Penser Joch is also easy to ride, not just an attractive alternative to the often congested Vipiteno – Bozen connection through the Eisack valley. At the entrance a striking narrow point, gripping the road like a giant vice; plus a cross on top of the rocky “cheek”. The little road that branches off south of Sarnthein to the left in the direction of Niederwangen and Ritten is also brilliant: tight curves to kneel down, 16 percent gradient. 690 and 1200 bolts uphill, Bolzano remains in the valley basin. And in Oberinn you are definitely blown away. The huge phalanx of jagged Dolomite peaks builds up behind green hills. The Duke can hardly wait, shimmy over Klobenstein and Barbiano down into the Eisack valley and, after a short interlude on the SS 12 to Klausen, hurries through the Villnob valley up to the Wurzjoch. There we find nocturnal calm before the storm in the “utia de Borz” alpine inn.

The next day, the Slipper Mountain peeled itself out of the morning mist and invites passionate hikers to an audience. Well, we already have an appointment today: Klaus can again ask the queen of the small mountain passes to dance, I saddle the comfortable warhorse. A warm-up lap through the empty Lusnertal, then the full Dolo program: Gardena Pass, Sella Pass, Pordoi Pass. Often too many tourists in summer, but otherwise …

The exit from the “South Tyrolean TT” succeeds with the branch to Passo di Falzarego and Passo di Valparola. And if you don’t forget the Furkelpass, there is an alternative to the Furka at “Pass, Land, Fluss”. Behind it, “normal” mountains without jagged edges take over the scepter. Goodbye South Tyrol, Arrivederci Alto Adige. A single-lane road sticks out like a hairpin through green fir up to the Staller Sattel, the border with Austria. Due to the narrowness of the route and the cheeky cows, the passage is strictly regulated in terms of time: it goes up from the 30th to 45th minute of every hour, in the opposite direction from the 1st to the 15th minute. As at the start of MotoGP, the field of drivers is waiting with great concentration for the red light to jump. 3, 2, 1 …

Info

Daams

Alpenglow on the Peitlerkofel.

From the Stilfser Joch to the Staller Sattel, from the Ortler massif to the Dolomites: South Tyrol is not only at the top in Italy, but also in the league of areas suitable for motorcycles.

Capital city: Bolzano
Surface: 7400 km²
Highest mountain: Ortler (3905 m)
Highest pass: Stilfser Joch (2757 m)
Population: 509626

getting there
The Reschenpass in the west, the Felbertauern tunnel in the east, in between Timmelsjoch or Brenner – these are the gateways for an eventful trip to South Tyrol, depending on the individual starting point.

Travel time
As is not unusual for the Italian Alps, the following also applies here: While the high passes are passable from around mid-May to October, depending on the current snow conditions, the street cafe season in the valleys and cities often lasts significantly longer due to the Mediterranean climate. Which, depending on personal preferences and time of year, makes it more pleasant, sometimes upstairs, sometimes downstairs. Either way, the holiday months of July and August are not the ideal time, since then, in addition to full mountain pass roads, you can expect fully booked accommodations.

MairDumont / Claudia Werel

The distance traveled.

accommodation
The “Tibet Hut” promises outstanding overnight experiences directly at the top of the pass at an altitude of 2800 meters.,
Stilfser Joch, I-39020 Stilfs, phone 00 39/03 42/90 33 60, www.tibet-stelvio.com. Not that high and so close to the pass, but at least with the road to Timmelsjoch right in front of the door, the “Hochfirst” inn, I-39013 Moos, phone 00 39/04 73/64 70 40, scores points. Vis-à-vis the mighty one At the Peitlerkofel Dolomite summit you spend the night on the Wurzjoch in the “utia de Borz” alpine inn, Wurzjoch, Str. Borz 26, I-39030 St. Martin in Thurn, phone 00 39/04 74/52 00 66, www.wuerzjoch.com. A classy address in the Antholz Valley in the direction of Staller Sattel is the Hotel “Bad Salomonsbrunn”, Antholzerstrabe 1, I-39030 Rasen Antholz, phone 00 39/04 74/49 21 99, www.badsalomonsbrunn.com. More interesting hotel, tour and service offers at www.moho.info

Literature and maps
The travel guide “South Tyrol” from Michael Muller Verlag provides detailed information about the region for 24.90 euros. A clear road map including an extra guide is the “South Tyrol / Dolomites” leisure map by Marco Polo on a scale of 1: 120,000 for 7.99 euros.
Addresses: Italian National Tourist Board ENIT, Barckhausstrabe 10, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Telephone 0 69/23 74 34, www.enit-italia.de.

Further: www.suedtirol.info, www.provinz.bz.it

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