Pian del Gacc

The suggestion you'll find below is not really for a tourist who comes to Trento  or the Trentino region for a week. There are other more important places to see in the area if you here only for a short time. We wrote this post thinking of people who, like us, happen to live here or who come to stay here for longer and want to break their heavy visiting schedule.

Pian del Gacc is a great place for easy walks or cycling trips; it's very popular with the locals. We recommend it especially in summer because it's situated in a woodland area. The flat terrain makes this walk suitable for the little ones and for their buggies. 

Pian del Gacc lies in an area famous for the extraction of silver, about 12 km away from Trento. It's an ideal place for families because they will find here 2 very nice playgrounds. , right next to the car park. From here you can start your walk following the indications for Monte Piano (900m asl). Along the footpath you'll find another attraction of Pian del Gacc: the wooden gnomes sculpted by a local artist. You'll find a name plate next to each of them. We don't remember, though, if they are in English as well.

How to get there: from Trento take the Valsugana SS 48 towards Pergine, turn right towards Civezzano and then follow the indications for Fornace. You'll find the car park at the end of an asphalt road that takes you from Fornace towards Pian del Gacc.

Duration: 2 hours;

Level: very easy, suitable for pushchairs;

Refreshments and toilet facilities: 

in summer:  the bar near the car park of Pian del Gacc;

in other months: the village of Fornace;

Useful links:

http://www.aptpinecembra.it/cms-01.00/articolo.asp?IDcms=106&s=420&l=EN

Trento Christmas Market

The Trento Christmas Market is definitely to be visited. Beware of busy periods like the weekend near the 8 December. 

Opening times: 20 November till 23 December every day from 10am till 19:30pm.

Levico Christmas Market

We highly recommend the Levico Christmas Market, taking place in the Levico Terme Park. It's within a large green area, so there's plenty of room. The attractions include: animals, live music and light effects (please see the picture with a pink tree below).

The opening times are slightly confusing so here it goes: 

• weekends Friday to Sunday from 10am till 7pm;
• weekdays from 26 December till 6 January from 2pm till 7pm;
• Saturday 27 November 9:30pm fireworks, open from 10am till 10:30pm;
• 4 December and 11 December open from 10am till 22:30pm;

Pergine Christmas Market

Pergine town centre with the castle in the background

Opening times:

from 13 November until 28 November: Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays all day

from 3 December till 24 December: Mondays to Thursdays and Sundays from 10am till 7pm.

Fridays and Saturday: from 10am till 21pm

Try this local speciality "Stromboi" or "Strauben", higly caloric but very good indeed.

 Entrance to the Pergine Christmas Market

Valle dei Mocheni and the Fersina walk

Today we are going to write about the Fersina Walk in Valle dei Mocheni.
We have seen this walk suggested on many websites, but none of them tells you exactly how to get there and where the starting point is. The reason for this may be that the other websites are written by people who have never been to these places. We, on the other hand, write only about the places we have "tried and tested".
So, remember that you saw it here first! :)

La Valle dei Mocheni, only 20 km away from Trento, is a unique place, very different from the Trentino region. Indeed, seeing the road signs you could think that you are in a German speaking country. The Mocheni Valley is inhabited by people speaking an old variation of German, and their culture and customs are also unique in this respect. 

The place gives us an impression to be a bit of a forgotten valley. It has a quiet and sleepy atmosphere. You can see many traditional farmhouses, some of them have long passed their glory days, scattered on the hillsides. The nature is unspoilt and a bit wild. In November the golden colours of autumn are particularly beautiful. 

The Fersina torrent starts at Lake Erdemolo which is another great place to visit in the summer months. It goes through the Valle dei Mocheni and Valsugana towards Trento where it joins the Adige river. 

This could be a great walk in all seasons, unfortunately one part of the path to the left towards Palu' was damaged by August rains and remains now closed to the public. The recent November downpours did not help either...


We started our walk in Sant'Orsola. You have to follow the sign "Passeggiata Torrente Fersina". The path goes alongside the torrent and, as we've already said, you can choose to either go left (towards Palu) or right (towards Pergine). Along the footpath you'll find a green picnic area with places to sit and play ball. The path is very well sign-posted as you can see from the pictures below.

We passed many beautiful "masi" on our way. A "maso" is a typical old farmhouse of this area. Apart from the "masi" you'll also find here some old mills and sawmills. They were all closed now but you can visit some of them during the summer months.

We are planning to visit the mills next summer, and that's when we will be able to write something more about it. For now this is the information we've found on the Internet:

Maso Filzerhof (not the one in the pictures above) near Fierozzo/ Vlaroetz (tel.0461 550073) belongs to "the Open Museum" which includes some old farmhouses and mills in the area. Here you can see how the people of the valley lived in the past. It is only open during the summer months and even then not every day. 

Miniera Grua va Hardoembl (tel.0461 / 550053) is another place worth a visit in summer. It's an old mine turned into a museum. You can actually go underground and see how the miners used to work. The mine is located 5 km away from Palu, on the footpath leading to the Lake Erdemolo.

How to get there: 
From Trento take the Valsugana SS47 towards Pergine, from Pergine follow the indications for Valle dei Mocheni. When you get to Sant'Orsola centre turn right towards the church and follow the road going down until you see the signs for the car park and the Passeggiata Torrente Fersina (Localita' Caspito).


Duration: from 2 hours onwards;


Level: easy, suitable for pushchairs;


Refreshments and toilet facilities: available in Sant' Orsola Terme;

Dinosaur trail near Rovereto

Thank you for this suggestion. The walk is not only interesting, but also very nice and easy. Moreover, it is just a short car drive from Trento.
We found it difficult to get there so here we try to give you as straightforward directions as possible.

Rovereto boasts apparently the largest collection of dinosaur footprints to be found in Italy, dating back to 200 million years ago. 

The whole landscape is very particular and moon-like with big and small rocks scattered everywhere.

We left our car at the car park and followed a clearly signposted asphalt road down to the beginning of the sort of bridleway. The signposts are in Italian so you have to follow the "Orme" sign, which in Italian means footprints. All the  other information signs are in Italian and English, though. Throughout our walk we saw different numbers that we couldn't not really figure out what they were. (Possibly the number of places to see the footprints, but then it would be too many numbers?)

The footprints are divided into 2 main groups: one at a lower level on your right; the other one slightly further on, and it's on the upper level on your left. If you stay on the main track you can take a buggy with you. If you want to see the footprints, however, you have to leave your buggy on the side of the track and proceed without it as you can see it in the picture below.

The path on the left, leading up to the wooden terraces from which you can see the footprints, is quite steep. From here you can admire the biggest dinosaur footprints in this place. They are about 30-40 cm in diameter and they belong to a dinosaur that would measure 3-4 m in height.

On a last note we would suggest that if you go there with children, you could research the dinosaur topic first in order to make the trip more relevant and real.

How to get there:  take the A22 towards Rovereto, exit the highway at Rovereto Nord (North) and go towards Lizzana.  In Lizzana you'll find clear directions for "Pista dei dinosauri" and a big dinosaur (obviously not real). The dinosaur trail is in a place called Lavini di Marco.
If you do a search on Google Maps, you could put in Strada dei Artiglieri, Rovereto. (That's where the car park is.)

Duration: from 3 hours to half a day;

Level: easy, suitable for all-terrain pushchairs;

Refreshments and toilet facilities: none;

Please let us know if you are aware of any websites.

Here's the website only in Italian, but at least you can see what these dinosaurs looked like.

http://www.museocivico.rovereto.tn.it/context.jsp?area=72&ID_LINK=190&page=1

Lake Caldonazzo/ Lago di Caldonazzo

Lake Caldonazzo is  located in the Valsugana, only 20 km away from Trento and 7 km away from Lake Levico. 

It's is known as a summer holiday destination offering places to swim, sail, row, dive or windsurf. It's great for walks and jogging as well as cycling which is what we did.

We went there one autumn day when it was all empty except for some locals out for a walk after lunch. All the restaurants and bars  that we passed on our way were closed. It is different in the summertime, though, when it is sometimes difficult to find a space to park.

This time we had no problem finding a car park which was free of charge (you have to pay during the summer months).

We set off cycling on the quiet roads which later joined a cycling footpath. It is not finished yet but you can get from Calceranica to S. Colombo and from Calceranica to Caldonazzo and further to Pergine. It was a very nice and tranquil afternoon. We stopped at the many playgrounds to have our picnic and some warm tea. On the way from Calceranica towards San Christoforo the cycling path goes alongside the train trucks (they are behind a wire fence and it's all very safe). Seeing a train from so close was another attraction as was seeing the ducks.

We had a very good time and we are definitely going to include Caldonazzo into our autumn/ winter and spring walks/cycling trips.

How to get there:

By car: take the Valsugana SS47 towards Pergine Valsugana, then follow the indications for Caldonazzo where you will find clearly sign posted car parks.


By train: from Trento take the Valsugana train towards Venezia. It is probably best to get off at Calceranica as from there it's only a short walk to the lake;


Duration: from 2 hours onwards, depending on what you want to do;


Level: easy, suitable for pushchairs, all flat.


Refreshments and toilet facilities: being a summer holiday destination you'll find many restaurants and bars at the lake;

Useful websites: 
http://www.tr3ntino.it/en/nature-and-landscape/lakes/lake-caldonazzo.html