Day 5: The Ice Man Cometh
Beverage of the Day
Grappa
Practicalities
Cities: Castelrotto, Bolzano
Weather: Misty Morning, Sunny Afternoon
Hotel: Cavallino D'Oro
Sights: Trail of the Witches
South Tyrol Museum of
Archaeology
A Perfect Day
Sometimes you have one of those days that is so wonderful that in memory it becomes steeped in the golden glow of perfection, even though it probably wasn’t actually perfect, and you remember it always. Most of mine are travel days, so much more vivid than everyday life. Most trips I have one.
There was the Amalfi Coast and Paestum, a lavender tour of Provence, Neuschwanstein on the winter solstice, Delphi on our Rick Steves Greece tour, Ngorongoro Crater, the Taj Mahal, Christmas Day in London, and now this day in the Dolomites.
This was the day I was most looking forward to on this trip, and it didn’t disappoint. I really wanted to manage to do both an Alpine hike and seeing the Iceman, and I was so happy that it worked out. It was a beautiful day for hiking. The weather was overcast and misty, but the mist made the scenery look so magical that I didn’t really care that we did not get spectacular Alpine views. And the cows, ringing their bells all over the surrounding pastures, exactly fit my image of what an Alpine hike would be like.
Lunch at the top of the lift was wonderful. Catching the bus down to Bolzano worked out perfectly. And then the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology! They have done such an amazing job with the display. You get a peek at Ötzi’s actual corpse, and then detailed information about every aspect: his shoes, his pack and every item in it, his tattoos, his death, and on and on. The archaeology geek in me was in heaven. We downloaded the audiotour app, and it was very well done. We had also listened the night before to a podcast which Trish had recommended: “An Ice Cold Case” from Radiolab, and that was a good introduction.
That evening we had a great happy hour back at the hotel in Castelrotto, and the whole group got together, and we introduced our buddies while drinking grappa. Just a really special day – can’t top it.
Great breakfast at the Cavallino D'Oro. I love Italian coffee. Then we meet the rest of the group back at the bus for the drive up to Compatsch and access to the Alpe di Siusi, making sure to take a good portion of the hotel literature we got yesterday: bus schedule, map of the area, etc. We arrive about 9 and start walking toward the Puflatsch lift, which turns out to be a twenty minute walk.
The lift itself takes about 7 minutes to reach the top, and then we are ready to hike.
Puflatsch lift ticket
Handy trail map on back of ticket
Trail of the Witches seems to be a name that is only used in Rick's book; I'm not sure the trail actually has a name. As advertised, though, it is a loop trail, and you can hike it going in either direction. We pick a direction and set out. It's a very misty morning. I suspect there might be great views behind the mist, but it looks magical, and actually provides a perfect morning for hiking -- not too sunny but enough visibility to see the trail.
Misty Trail of the Witches
The hill sides are covered with wildflowers, a sprinkling of cows and even a few horses. And the tinkling of cowbells fills the air.
There are occasional electric fences, which will give you a mild shock as I find out when I stumble into one. And we also encounter a cross at what is probably supposed to be a vista point.
The yellow sign is a warning about the electric fence.
I think there is supposed to be a view of the mountains behind me.
We encounter very few other people on this trail. Halfway through we meet some other members of our group hiking the trail in the opposite direction, and we stop to take photos of each other. When we loop back toward the lift station, the hike having taken just under two hours, we decide to stop and have an early (11:30) lunch at the restaurant. It's a very pleasant day to sit outside and while we are eating the clouds begin to break up and the view becomes visible. I take a panorama of it (see top of the page). Next we take the lift down and hike uphill to the cable car station to Seis and have a quick but extremely scenic ride down.
At the bottom we catch the 12:40 bus to Bolzano, which actually leaves from the bus stop on the road, not from any of the bus stops next to the cable car station. I'm sure we could have gotten a bus to Castelrotto from one of those, though. The hotel gave us all transit cards for the bus, so we don't even have to worry about the fare. And an hour later we are in Bolzano, having a leisurely walk from the train station to the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology. I bought tickets online in advance for this, so we scan our tickets and go right in. The ticket line actually is not very long, though.
We downloaded the audio tour to my phone in advance, and I'm glad that we did because it gives good explanations of everything that we are seeing. We get a peek at Ötzi's actual corpse in its climate-controlled container, a discussion of his murder, and a detailed look at everything he was wearing and carrying and what it might have been used for. Some of the herbs may have been for medicinal purposes. His tattoos might have been an arthritis treatment. From the condition of his lungs he probably worked metal at some point in his life. It's all fascinating. The objects are too delicate to be photographed, so I have my souvenir flyer and a photo of the reconstruction.
After a fun two hours in the museum, we walk back to the train station and catch a bus back to Castelrotto. In the evening we have a lovely dinner at Saalstuben; the red wine from the Veneto is particularly memorable. And then we gather back at the hotel for another happy hour. Tonight we are trying grappa while introducing our buddies, followed by hanging out and chatting about other places people in the group have travelled to, particularly Paris and India. Ah travel.
The view from Puflatsch