Summer in the Senales Valley
When you leave the Venosta Valley and turn into the Senales Valley, just roll down the window and absorb everything there is around you…
hay and the forest. The savoury scent of our local herbs and the moist aroma of tree bark permeates through the larch woodland. Weather-beaten farms greet you from the slopes and, high above them, pretty much 3,000m above them, the mountaintops look down on you gracefully. It’ll make you want to be up there. When you get out of the car, it’ll hit you… you’re finally here. It’s time to feel everything with your own hands – no – with your own feet, discovering what the hiking opportunities the Senales Valley has to offer in the summer.
Rural, peaceful,
mystical and exciting landscape
This is where adventure awaits you.
Most are widely-known, but others are true insiders’ tips. Right from the offset, the right hand fork takes you into Val di Fosse, allowing you to experience open, high Alpine countryside. From Santa Caterina, one side boasts views over the little church and the monastery, the mystically silent place that encapsulates visitors and takes them back centuries. With all its 700 years of history, the pilgrimage church in the picturesque village of Madonna di Senales stands proud. The Lago di Vernago shimmers in so many beautiful shades of blue and gives the larch trees – green in the summer and yellow in the autumn – an impressive contrast. When you reach the head of the valley, the glaciers come into view. Here, you’ll find the Senales Valley glacier ski area, with lifts which run all year round making it possible to experience it as often as you’d like!
5 reasons to take a summer holiday in the Senales Valley:
- Hike to wherever your legs want to take you: The hiking paths range from altitudes of 500m and 3,200m and snake between impressive valley landscapes, the Gruppo di Tessa nature reserve and the Senales Valley glacier.
- The valley of pastures: What would these hiking paths, which range from wide and comfortable to wild and rocky, be without the rustic Alpine shacks to visit for a pit stop? Hiking through the Senales Valley in the summer doesn’t just mean enjoying the countryside…
- Transhumance: In June and September, sheep are driven spectacularly up and down the mountain. For centuries now, up to 4,000 sheep have been driven from the Venosta and Senales Valleys, over the snowy Hochjoch and Niederjoch, to the pastures in the Venter Valley in Austria.
- The glacier up close: Not only does the Ötzi Glacier Tour takes you to the site where Ötzi was found, it also transports you deep into a world of eternal ice and with the most impressive views of the glacier.
- An adventure at every turn: The climbing garden or the Archeoparc are just two of the adventures which await you and will become deeply entrenched in your hearts and minds. The beautiful Venosta Valley is just a stone’s throw away!