Val Senales

There is a place where sheep are allowed to roam freely, the eternal ice spits out remarkable people and where the beauty of nature is genuinely legendary…

There isn’t much hope for you if the 126 peaks rising above three thousand metres and Naturno’s palm trees don’t bring you happiness. The Val Senales is a place for those who appreciate authenticity and sincerity. Just like us.

Schnols über olls! (Senales above all else) That’s what they say here. Nobody knows who came up with it, but it’s true. Something like our valley, you have to protect like a gem.

Many a writer has struggled to capture the spirit of Val Senales soul in words. I’m only an uneducated old mountain farmhouse, so I can only do the best I can to sum up my homeland as follows: Not far from the fashionable spa town of Merano, the Val Senales veers off. The official starting point is Naturno, where vineyards and palm trees surround Reinhold Messner’s castle, and the wind always appears to have a taste of the south. The rest of the route is uphill from here. Towards the glacier it gets more and more rugged. More Alpine-like. Unspoilt. Suddenly, you find yourself in the heart of the Val Senales. With me. The glacier and the ski slopes are easily accessible from here, and several hiking trails begin directly outside my front door. Val Senales wouldn’t be Val Senales without its enigmatic rituals and hidden treasures in the perpetual ice.

Bathing in peaks and letting the sheep lead the way

We have been roaming about up here since the beginning of time, or maybe even before people began to think. For at least 5,300 years, certainly. That’s what scientists discovered when they looked into the stomach contents of our famous ice glacier mummy. So it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that you’ll be following in Ötzi’s footsteps when you lace up your hiking boots in Val Senales. There are many opportunities for it. The length of the Val Senales is 20 km. More than 240 hiking routes criss-cross the area on either side, heading up to the summits. With 126 peaks rising to elevations of more than 3,000 metres, including some under the special conservation status of the Gruppo di Tessa Nature Park, Val Senales is truly a veritable mountain kingdom. Skiing and carving are popular winter sports near the head of the valley and on the glacier, but year-round exploration of the area’s museums, castles, and churches is also recommended. You will need to book a room with me by mid-September if you want to really feel the pride of the people who live in Val Senales. That’s when the legendary sheep migration, known as the ‘Transhumance’, takes place. An event recognised by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The Val Senales is a side valley of the south tyrolean val Venosta. The Oberrainldhof is a good 60 kilometres from Bolzano. Merano is 28 kilometres away.