The Renon and the earth pyramids
Clay towers with a stone hat
Above Bolzano, a sunny plateau at about 1,000 to 1,300 metres, the Renon (Ritten), dotted with meadows, woods, farms and villages, offers one of the most beautiful views of the Dolomites, from the Sciliar to the Catinaccio and the Latemar. Since the nineteenth century it has been a summer retreat for the inhabitants of Bolzano, who came here to escape the heat of the valley. The journey is part of the pleasure: from the centre of Bolzano, the Renon cable car climbs in about twelve minutes to Soprabolzano (Oberbozen), and from here the Renon train, a historic narrow-gauge tram of 1907, with some of its original carriages still in use, runs through meadows and woods to Collalbo (Klobenstein).
The most surprising sight of the plateau are the earth pyramids, strange natural formations that look like a forest of slender towers of earth and clay, some over 30 metres high, each topped by a large stone like a hat. They were formed after the last Ice Age, when the glaciers left behind a thick layer of moraine clay: the rain gradually eroded the soft clay, but where a large stone protected the ground below, a column was preserved, which continued to grow taller as the surrounding earth was washed away. When the stone falls, the pyramid is quickly eroded and disappears, while new ones are born. The most beautiful pyramids of the Renon are near Longomoso, reached by a short path from Collalbo, and in the valley of the Rio Fosco, near Soprabolzano. On the plateau, the paths of the Freud promenade, where Sigmund Freud walked during his holidays, offer views of the Dolomites.
Tip: the RittenCard includes the cable car and the train; take the train in the morning and walk to the pyramids of Longomoso.
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