"A visit to Bozen and area." a Bolzano Travel Page by dabidc

The visit to Chur, Arosa and the train trip on the Bernina Express are now a memory and the hope is that the weather in N. Italy will be drier and warmer.

The journey from Chur to Bozen was a combination of train from Chur to Scuol and then a Swiss bus to Nauders in Austria and an Italian bus service to Merano and finally a train to Bozen.

One alternate travel itinerary was to travel by train from Chur to Buchs cross into Austria at Feldkirch and take an express train to Innsbruck and change for a train south to Bozen. I have often travelled along the Feldkirch to Innsbruck rail line it is one of the best for viewing the mountains in western Austria. This time I wanted to see some new country.

My journey was along the valley of the Inn or En as it is called in Switzerland, in the Engadine area of that Country. The bus from Scuol crossed the border into Austria at Martinsbruck and left me at Nauders to await the Italian connecting bus to Merano.

The general elevation of the places mentioned Scuol and Nauders is about 1300m. The lowest point is Martinsbruck at just over 1000m.

The Reschen Pass at 1500 m is the actual border between Austria and Italy, the road then passes alongside the Reschen lake, which is a man made lake and I believe the water eventually covered a village.

The road then descends into the valley of the Adige passing castles and churches as well as several small villages. The valley broadens out and good farm land allows for the growing of fruit, especially apples. The distance from Nauders to Merano is about 80 km.

At Merano there is need to change to the train, a simple matter since the bus station is at the train station.

The travel time from Chur to Bozen was about 7 hours, maybe faster by Innsbruck but the jouney by bus over the high country proved interesting and alllowed for a few photo opportunities. I see that there is a road, maybe a high Alpine road ,that connects Susch or Sus in the Engadines ( just beforeScuol) to Schluderns or Sluderno in the valley of the Adige in Italy. It passes through the Swiss National Park travels along the Val Mustail and into Italy. I am not aware of any bus service along this road.

Bozen is capital of the Sud Tirol or Alto Adige and is a mix of Austrian and Italian history and culture. Italian and German are both official languages ever since the area was lost to Austria after Word War 1.

The city is an excellent centre for visiting the many valleys in the Dolomites, it is also the location to visit Oetzi Man , whose remains were found in the high Alps north west of the City near the border between Austria and Italy.

The Duomo is in the centre of the photo with Hotel Adri, the bus station and the train sation to the bottom right hand corner and off the photo. Immediately to the right of the Duomo is the Plazza delle Erbe, and just behind the Duomo to the right and left are the arcaded narrow streets that give a vibrancy to life in Bozen. Way off to the left is the museum where Oetzi man can be viewed. It is busy and expect to wait a while before getting inside. there are English language aids that can be carried with you.

It is definitely worth a visit.

In the section of Bozen just north and east of the centre and close to the rail line from Austria there is a cable car to a quiet retreat way above the City.

It is a pleasant place to visit to get views across the Dolomites and over the City itself. It is very definitely ruaral even with some large houses there. A tram /rail line does run in that upper location but I never found out how extensive it is.