Southern Tirol
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Southern
Tirol is located in Italy. This regions borders Switzerland and Austria. On this
map the direction to Lienz (in Eastern Tirol) is pointed out, as well as the
Brenner. Most of the time when we go to this region for holidays, we stay near
Brüneck in the Ahrntal (Valle Aurina). Also this region is pointed out on this
map. This valleyu is located just across the mountains from the Virgental, which
I described in the section about Eastern Tirol. These two regions have a lot in
common. Also the nature is very much the same, here they also have got a nature
reserve, that of Riesenferner-Ahr, which borders the Hohe Tauern. This nature
reserve is not as old as the Hohe Tauern, so a lot of species that fled to
Austria haven't returned to Italy yet. But I'm pretty certain they will quite
soon.
The best part of this region is the weather. When it's not so
good in Eastern Tirol, it's much better in Southern Tirol. This is because
mostly bad weather clouds break open when trying to cross the mountains. Even if
the weather at the end of the valley (towards Austria) isn't that good, it can
help to just drive half an hour towards the Rheintal and the Riesenfernergruppe,
and you can go hiking in sunshine! So this region is very much made for people
who love mountains, but want some certainty about the weather. But don't shoot
me if the weather isn't good over there either!
We also made holidays in the neighbourhood of the
Reschenpass, namely in the Vinsgau. This is a large valley, full with apple
trees. I't very beautiful over there too, but this valley is much wider. It
feels different and you have to drive longer to start your hikes. Also I can't
remember very though hikes over there. To find some difficult day tours, you'll
have to drive towards the Ortler (the highest mountain of the whole Tirol). Over
there I heard about some splendid hikes.
In this part of the site I will describe some hikes I did in
the Ahrntal. Maybe later I will get the other region up here to, but it's been a
long time since I've been there (about 8 - 10 years), so I don't rembember to
much about it anymore. Writing about this region will ask for a lot of research.
I will also write something about 'das Prettauer Bergwerk'. This is a mining
museum located in Prettau (Ahrntal), which is certainly worth a visit!