Bolzano

We're going to put "conquer a mountain" on the Bucket List simply so we can cross it off after today's efforts. It wasn't the biggest mountain and we had some help but our feet were on the top of it so we're claiming it as ours.

Help Pt 1 was getting from Bolzano to Soprabolzano on the Renon plateau. This was easily achieved via a 12 minute spectacularly scenic ride in a cable car ... technically it's a gondola ropeway but regardless of what it's called, it's a very civilised way to gain 950m elevation. Grumpy Toe was grateful.

Help Pt 2 was an equally spectacular scenic trundle on the historic narrow-gauge railway which runs across the Renon plateau to Collalbo.

Help Pt 3 was a local bus to Tre Vie, which is a busy ski area in winter but in summer it's a hiking paradise. It was standing room only on the bus. Grumpy Toe was very happy for the winding ride which gained us another 400m elevation.

From Tre Vie there was an option for Help Pt 4 ... another cable car which would deposit us closer to the top, leaving only a final few hundred metres to walk. Grumpy Toe was tempted but we decided to walk up from Tre Vie. We were the only ones who didn't get off the bus and join the queue for the cable car.

A couple of hours later, after 6km of uphill all the way, we were eating our packed lunch on Corno del Renon with 360 degree views ... we've nominated it for Best Lunch Spot So Far. The weather was clear, the visibility was amazing but it was a little cold ... we trudged through some small patches of snow and ice to get our view and the breeze sent chilled air our way.

After drinking in the view and taking lots of photos which don't do it justice, we walked back down the other side of the mountain through pine forests and mountain pastures. It was a slightly longer walk (8km downhill all the way) but the scenery was just as spectacular as on the way up. The trail continued all the way down to the Renon plateau, or even further to Bolzano in the valley a long way below us but Grumpy Toe had morphed into Angry Toe after such a long descent. We arrived at the Tre Vie bus stop and reversed the transport process to get back down to Bolzano.Read more