Walking in Europe

Back in the mountains of Northern Italy

We said goodbye to Graz the day before yesterday and had a very restful day on the train first West through the centre of Austria to Innsbruck where we changed trains and headed South to Brenner then another change at the Italian border to the train to Brixen-Bressanone (many place names in South Tyrol are in German and Italian). We had a very comfortable night in a Youth Hostel a short walk from the train station in Brixen and a very yummy plate of pasta in the main square.

Yesterday, after some misgivings about whether regional transit buses were running on a Sunday, we eventually found the right one to take us to the mountain village of St Magdalena in the Val de Funes and where we have been enjoying a few days of day-hikes in the “Geisler Peaks” area.

Yesterday we arrived at our pension (B&B) with enough time to drop our packs and spend the afternoon exploring the hillsides and walking paths around the village.

Today we had an amazing hike up to the Tullen Peak in a group of peaks in the Odle di Eores area where we had lunch under the peak and glorious views of the Geislergruppe Peaks across the valley. We completed a 3000 ft ascent today and lunch was on a lovely grassy meadow complete with a flock of sheep enjoying the last of the high summer pasture. Just can’t believe how hardy the farm animals are in the many alpine farms we’ve walked through!