"Castelrotto/Kastelruth" Castelrotto by slcook52

I arrived by train to the town of Bolzano, and from there took the bus to Castelrotto. Its a VERY scenic 50 minute ride, with buses leaving twice an hour from Bolzano. Quite the experience actually, riding the bus up or down the narrow winding mountain road. Just when you think there isn't enough space for the bus....here comes another one coming the other way! The drivers are really quite talented the way they can manuever two buses within an inch of one another, and I mean an inch.

Castelrotto's bell tower

A very cute clean town to spend a few days (or more)in. Good spot in the summer for hiking, and in the winter for skiing. It's a good place for a home base to explore the surrounding Alpe di Siusi. The main square is Piazza Kraus, a short distance from the bus station. You will see the church and bell tower at the piazza. The church is beautiful inside, filled with art work from about 1850. Branching out from the square are pretty little narrow streets, shops, hotels and restaurants all in the typical style of German/Austrian architecture with pretty painted walls and window baskets full of trailing flowers. The town has a German feel, not Italian, and most of the people are German speaking.

views like this everywhere you turn

The town itself is fairly small, easy to walk around. There is a tourist info place to pick up brochures and maps of the hiking trails. You can easily just take off in any direction on foot any start walking up the surrounding hills for beautiful views. There is a chair lift (Marinzen Lift) that takes you up the mountain to a cafe (only runs in the summer).

• Pros:clean, quiet, beautiful surrounding scenery
• Cons:none
• In a nutshell:feels like another world