Showcase Saturday - Hiking on Monte Sole in South Tyrol

Italy has been my favorite country for many years. I love their language, coffee, food, and people. But who knew that there are certain regions in Italy where people speak German? Well, I didn't! Let me take you to South Tyrol!

Welcome to my new series from South Tyrol in Italy!

My husband planned this trip to Naturno as a birthday present for me. We spent there 3 days and let me tell you that it was not enough. We will have to go there at least one more time.

It's around 300 km from Schaffhausen (where we live) but it takes almost 5 hours by car to get there. We left home at 3 am because we wanted to arrive to the hotel on time for breakfast. My husband had to work that day and we agreed with the hotel that they would make a space available for him and I would be enjoying the hotel facilities. This didn't sound too shabby to me.

On the way we had to drive through two mountain passes, and I was happy to finally arrive in Naturno. We were even able to check in to our room at 9 am without any additional charges, so our stay started very well. I spent all day at the pool or in sauna, I got a massage, did some yoga and read my book. I think that this is enough details for you to feel envy 😊

One day of doing almost nothing was enough for me and the next morning we went on a hiking trip to Monte Sole/Sonnenberg mountain.

ISO 100 1/250 sec. f/8 35 mm

We were lucky as the cable car to the top of Sonnenberg is in Naturno, 5 minutes walk from our hotel. The station is called Unterstell and it takes about 10 minutes to get to up to the mountain.

The start of our hiking trail is right next to the cable car station. The trail starts with a short but steep and narrow path and leads us through the forest and meadows to the observation platform.

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ISO 100 1/160 sec. f/8 24 mm

ISO 100 1/160 sec. f/8 24 mm

Already at the start of our tour we got some stunning views of the Alps.

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Shortly after that we reached the observation platform.

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ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/8 24 mm

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I was so excited about the views that I didn't even realize what I was walking on. Once I looked down it was not that easy to walk there anymore. I headed to the railing to hold onto it like it would save my dear life if something happened there 😊

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Yep, that is me 😊

(taken by my husband)

After a short while we continued on our trail. It was supposed to take us 1.5 hours but it was clear from the beginning that it would be much longer as we stopped too often to take photos.

ISO 100 1/160 sec. f/8 24 mm

After a steep climb we sat down on a big rock and checked the map if we were on the right trail as we didn't expect it to be so difficult. Well, it was and we promised ourselves to work on our stamina 😊

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ISO 100 1/160 sec. f/8 24 mm

Climbing, climbing, climbing.. would it ever end?

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Finally we reached the top and saw large meadows in front of us - no climbing anymore, yay!

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We could see Naturno in the valley and we even spotted our hotel - or I should say we guessed where it could be..

ISO 100 1/125 sec. f/8 24 mm

ISO 100 1/125 sec. f/8 24 mm

I'd love to tell you something about this 'guy' but there was no information available.

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ISO 100 1/250 sec. f/8 26 mm

We saw many different insects and plants on the way and I managed to capture some of them.

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ISO 100 1/250 sec. f/4.5 70 mm

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ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/3.5 40 mm

ISO 100 1/640 sec. f/4.5 62 mm

We stopped at the small mountain hotel at the end of the trail for a cup of their homemade lemonade. After that it was time to literally run back to the cable car station so that we would catch the next cable car. We came there right on time!

I hope you have enjoyed our hike in South Tyrol.

Thank you for reading!

Cheers,
Martina