Renon Plateau (Ritten) via the Renon Cable Car
Hop into the sleek Renon Cable Car at the Bolzano train station and within 12 minutes you're standing on a high plateau at 1,200 metres, gazing down at the city spread across the valley floor with the jagged Dolomite peaks filling the horizon. It is, quite simply, one of the easiest big-view payoffs in the Alps.
The Ride and the Plateau
The cable car climbs 950 vertical metres in one smooth sweep, passing over vineyards and pine forests before depositing you at Soprabolzano (Oberbozen), a quiet village of timber farmhouses and flower-filled meadows.
From there, a narrow-gauge electric railway — the charming Rittner Bahn, one of the oldest mountain railways in the Alps, dating to 1907 — trundles along the plateau to the village of Collalbo, giving you a rolling window seat over the panorama.
The Earth Pyramids of Renon
The plateau's strangest attraction is a field of tall, mushroom-shaped earth pyramids near Longomoso — natural erosion pillars of glacial moraine, each balanced with a boulder on top like a geological magic trick.
A signed 45-minute walking trail loops through the pyramids; the late-afternoon light turns them a warm terracotta and the Dolomites behind them glow in shades of rose and amber.
When to Go
Summer is glorious for hiking the 30-kilometre network of plateau trails, but autumn is arguably the finest season: the larch forests turn gold, the air is sharp and clear, and the cable car queues are a fraction of July's.
In winter the plateau gets reliable snow and transforms into a quiet cross-country skiing and snowshoeing destination, completely different in character from the busy ski resorts further up the valley.
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