 |
| Val di Funes |
 |
| Val di Funes |
 |
| The path to Vahrn |
 |
| Hiking the region |
 |
Hiking the region
|
 |
| Hiking the region |
 |
| Brixen |
 |
| Brixen |
The idea to visit South Tyrol, a region in northern Italy, first emerged from my instagram feed a couple years back. A photo of a church in the foreground and the peaks of the towering Dolomites behind quickly became top of my list as a place to visit. After a heap of instagram stalking, google searching and a bit of google maps, I pinpointed the location as Val di Funes and decided I would add it to my spring travel plans.
I stayed in Brixen(Bressanone), a nearby town, which was absolutely charming and the perfect place to spend a weekend. The transport to Brixen however caused me much grief. The original plan was to catch a train from Salzburg to Innsbruck and then a bus from Innsbruck to Brixen. When I arrived at Salzburg station though on the Friday, I was met with a 3.5 hour train delay! Immediately I began looking up alternative means to get to Innsbruck and then down to Brixen. Luckily for me there was another train heading to Innsbruck an hour later than my scheduled one so I was able to grab that at no extra cost. Thanks to that I was able to make my bus connection in Innsbruck down to 'Brixen', or so what I thought was Brixen. The bus stop for Brixen was actually located 7km out of Brixen on the side of a freeway, in a car park next to the tolling booths outside of an abandoned tourist office. Upon arrival, I had absolutely no clue what to do, there was a man picking up rubbish from the trash cans so I decided to ask if he spoke English and then ask how to get into Brixen, to which he told me to try going to a service station 500m down the road, the freeway road, where I may be able to get further help. So I began to walk literally on the side of a freeway to this service station. There I went inside and asked the girl behind the counter how I could get into Brixen, with the language barrier prominent, I had to get out google translate so she could type out directions, she told me there was a bus stop 10-15min down the road, the freeway, where I could catch a bus into town. So I began to walk in that direction, by this time, if not before, I was ready to break down and give up, however I knew if I gave up then I wouldn't be able to make it and I would be completely stranded. One last effort in asking locals led me to ask these two ladies out for a stroll with a pram, who told me the bus stop that was supposedly 10-15min the road was actually in the next village over, and so they led me to the path to follow to the village, Vahrn. This path was more or less a local hiking trail that hugged the train line and lasted about 5km. I finally made it the village and found the bus stop, a man gardening saw me and tried to tell me to take the no.1 bus to get in Brixen, which luckily came about 5min later. Upon embarking the bus I attempted to ask the bus driver how much it would be to go to Brixen to which I think he replied by motioning I needed a travel card, which I obviously didn't have. By now I literally would've paid €30 to get me into town, I was exhausted and lost. He did not accept my money and instead motioned for me to get on without paying a fare. This day of travel by far has been the hardest I've ever had and has truly shown me the kindness of humanity within people.
On the Saturday I took a local bus over to Val di Funes to spend the day admiring the Dolomites with my own two eyes. Then on the Sunday I decided to hike a path of found on some random board around town that went up through the surrounding mountains, villages, winding through apple and wine growing valleys and then back into Brixen.
This weekend spent in South Tyrol truly had been one I will never forget, the beauty of the region had me in love immediately and I cannot wait to return to explore more.
Comments
Post a Comment