Malghe trail around Meran 2000

We've been so many times to Meran/ Merano but only this year we've managed to explore a bit Meran 2000. What is Meran 2000 you'll ask. In winter you go there to ski or to try tobogganing. In summer it's great for hiking, Nordic walking, horse riding, mountain biking etc. In our case, we decided to combine walking with eating at the malghe. The malghe are mountain huts that in majority don't really look like huts, more like restaurants that serve  local, simple and traditional  food. We limited ourselves to two malghe only. I would have liked to see more but my lovely hubby was worried I wouldn't fit in the car afterwards! :) He didn't really say that but the look he gave me said it all.

Our adventure had its beginning in the middle of nowhere. We followed our sat nav but instead of going to Voeran/ Verano it led us to a Waldbichl Gasthof. We left our car at their car park and followed the indications, very clear as always in South Tyrol,  for our first malga: Leadner Alm, situated at 1530 m asl. It took us only 10 mins to get there. We crossed a field full of cows , then another with 2 horses and there we saw the malga. It was a busy Sunday lunch time but the staff were very efficient in finding us a table quickly and we didn't have to wait long for our food (which turned out to be very good but beware: the portions are huge). I would have liked to have my dessert here, they had very nice looking plum cake (Pflaum Datschi or dolce di prugne) but I had to pace myself since we wanted to go to the second malga as well. Malga Leadner has no playground but they have baby changing facilities. They also have deckchairs available for their guests.

 After lunch we followed the path nr 11 towards  Wurzel Alm/ Malga Wurz and it took us 1h 20 mins to get there. We followed the path through the woods which wasn't too good for buggies (there were plenty of tree roots on our way) but there is an alternative bridleway to the malga, suitable for pushchairs. We went back down using the bridleway as it was faster than the path through the woods. On our way back we had to turn left  and follow the indications, first for Leadner Alm and then for Waldbichl. On our way we saw some benches to have a picnic and we encountered more cows and horses. In fact, I've never seen as many cows and horses in the mountains in my life and we do go around quite a lot. The cows and horses had those Alpine bells so their sound was always accompanying us during our hike.

We were so glad we made it to Wurzer Alm. It's 1 hour away from anything else, you can't get there by car so the place had an authentic mountain feel to it.  There were plenty of benches to sit on outside but since it was a late afternoon already we went upstairs to sit inside. In a very small  room there were about 4-5 long tables, at one of them people were playing cards. We sat next to the hot stove and they had plenty of blankets as well but we didn't need them at all.  They didn't have any strauben but a very nice waitress  talked us into trying the Keiserschmarm. It's very similar to strauben, and looked like an omelette cut into  long stripes. They serve it with pear or wild berry mousse on the side, depending what you prefer.  We really liked it. You'll find Keiserschmarm in most of the malghe in Trentino and South Tyrol. We also tried a divine raspberry and mascarpone cake. We stopped outside to see the animals: they keep rabbits, goats, sheep and horses. Although there isn't any playground as such they have toys for children. To go back we used the same road.

How to get there by car: 

From Trento take the A22 towards Bozen/ Bolzano, come out at Bozen Sud, follow the indications for Meran/ Merano, exit at Meran Sud towards SS38, follow the indications for Voeran/ Verano and Haffling/ Avalengo . We wanted to get to Haffling but found ourselves in the middle of nowhere but very close to the malga we wanted to go anyway. You can follow the indications for Waldbichl and park there or go to Verano and follow the footpath nr16 from there.

Duration: 1 day trip

Level: easy, suitable for pushchairs

Refreshments and toilet facilities: at Leadner Alm and Wurzer Alm. They both have baby changing facilities.

Useful websites:

http://www.leadner-alm.com/       (the website doesn't open in Firefox)

Wurzer Alm hasn't got its website.

http://www.meran2000.net/uk/start.php (information about Meran 2000)

On our way to Voeran we passed by Terlan/ Terlano where we saw an adventure park with Tibetan bridges etc. It looked interesting. 

Below you'll find an official website of Terlan, with some very useful information, including the above mentioned adventure park Hight Ropes Challenge Course "Hetz".

http://www.terlan.info/tvterlan/index.php/content/blogsection/6/36/lang,en/

http://www.xsund.it/  (Adventure park's website)