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molveno |
| The lakeside village of MOLVENO , surrounded by the peaks of the
Brenta Alta, is a marginally cheaper place to stay than Madonna.
Although the cheapest places go quickly, particularly in high season,
the tourist office here, above the lake in the small town centre, at
Piazza Marconi 5 (Mon-Sat 9am-12.30pm & 3-6.30pm, Sun 9.30am-12.30pm;
tel 0461.586.086, www.molvenohappyholiday.it ) should be able to help
you find a room for the night. Albergo Italia (tel 0461.586.915;
L150,000-200,000/¬77.47-103.29) and the plainer Garni Alpenrose , just
back from the campsite (tel 0461.586.169; L90,000-120,000/¬46.48-61.98)
are both on Via Lungolago, with views of the lake. Failing these,
there's a swish campsite , Campeggio Spiaggia Lago di Molveno (tel
0461.586.978, www.campingspiaggio.com ), on the water's edge. There are few easy trails from Molveno into the Brenta massif - paths often disappear into nothing but vie ferrate across the rocks; fortunately these are all marked on maps, so you just need to plan your route carefully. If you decide to approach the Brenta group from this side, a cable car runs from the village to Pradel (1500m), where there's an albergo, Rifugio Pradel (tel 0461.586.903), and from where trails lead through the beeches and pines of the Val delle Seghe in the shadow of Croz dell'Altissimo (2339m). An easy circular route winds back to Molveno (2hr 30min), or technically more demanding paths take you higher up, past Rifugio Tosa at 2439m, and Rifugio Tommaso Pedrotti at 2491m (both tel 0461.948.115). The most prodigious of nineteenth-century climbers, Francis Fox Tuckett, opened up a difficult new route to Cima Brenta from Molveno, now known as the Bochetta di Tuckett . As ice axes hadn't been invented, he negotiated snowfields with a ladder and alpenstock, and carried joints of meat and bottles of wine for mountaintop breakfasts. The landscape where he "roamed amongst toppling rocks, and spires of white and brown and bronze coloured stone" is almost unchanged but for the bochetta , descending from the pass down to the Tuckett and Sella refuges . More paths skirt Cima Tosa and lead to Pinzolo via Rifugio Dodici Apostoli (tel 0465.501.309), a stone-built refuge for the hardy set at 2498m, with only cold water to wash in. From Molveno, the road follows the lake south then descends down to Ponte Arche , where you can pick up buses on the Madonna-Trento route. It's a beautiful trip through a valley which hasn't benefited from, or been blighted by, ski tourism, but there are only two buses daily. |