Südtirol/Alto Adige: Kastelruth/Castelrotto

This lovely little village was our home base for three nights, the longest stay of the Italian part of our vacation. The reason we picked it you can see peeking over the hills in the background of this photo: it's really close to the prime Dolomite hiking area, the Seiser Alm/Alpe di Suisi. I'll tell you about that wonderful place next time, but I want to show you more of Kastelruth/Castelrotto first.

After our scenic drive east from Lake Como, we wanted to stretch our legs a bit upon arrival here. Fortunately, our good friend Rick Steves described a perfect little hike for us.

It's just up the street, that you can see here, from our wonderful hotel (although it's true that nothing's too far from anything else in this compact little village).

At the end of the street, a nice trail winds around a hill on the edge of town. It's called the Kalvarienberg/Calvario, since it's decorated with life-sized structures and sculptures depicting the stations of the cross. Here's Henry taking a picture of one of the little niches:

There's a little chapel at the top of the Kofel (cone-shaped hill) but what I found more interesting was this informational sign that gives a good thumbnail sketch of the village's history, including an explanation of its name (the sign had German, Italian, and English text):

The hill also offered some great views of the town and surrounding mountains; many of the shots I've shown, and will show you, were taken from up here.

We had time after this little walk to take a peek in the Parish Church, on the square. Not surprisingly, the interior was sumptuous baroque (it was rebuilt in the mid-1700's after an earlier structure burned).

The windows were non-narrative and quite lovely...

Another impressive village sight is this hotel's façade...

After our day hiking in the Dolomites (which I'll tell you about next time) we earmarked our second day in this lovely area for a trip to Bozen/Bolzano. But before we left Kastelruth/Castelrotto, we were treated to part of a special alpine celebration.

notice the German & Italian

It turns out that we were there on an important day, the Almabtrieb/Transumanza, when the farmers bring their stock down from the summer pastures.

This is apparently a really big deal in these mountain villages and while we missed getting to see the decorated cows (google "transumanza castelrotto" to see some) we were able to enjoy some of the festival atmosphere.

There was a talented duo singing regional favorites (the crowd sang along with most of the choruses)...

...cute boys in lederhosen serenading us on very large horns...

...and older guys giving us the most unusual percussion performance you can imagine (and I've heard a percussion concerto!)...

Yes, that's a bullwhip, and there were two more fellows with whips behind him. They were really quite amazing. Although they wielded the whips pretty intensely, the guys were actually very nice...

If you look closely at my friend's [apron?] you'll see the logo for Kastelruth/Castelrotto's most famous cultural product...

"Welcome to the home of the Kastelruther Spatzen"

These guys are apparently like rock stars around here, and you can find lots of their music on the internet. For example, if you want to see some of the countryside that Henry and I hiked, along with musical accompaniment, they've got you covered. 

We won't be singing as we hike (although we did encounter an extremely accomplished yodeler!) but I'll have plenty of spectacular Dolomite photos to share with you next time.