The Town of Ortisei/St. Ulrich & Val Gardena/Groden Valley in South Tyrol, Italy

Now that it's 40 degrees Celsius in Rome, I feel like running back to the alps and cool off. I do realize how important it is to escape for a few days from the peak of the heat in the city and go somewhere else to refresh and enjoy the nature, whether it's the mountains or the sea. I live in the outskirt of Rome so still, I enjoy being free from traffic congestions and a different kind of heat that only cities have.

We usually take our summer holiday before August and for this summer, we have done our share of wonderful days in South Tyrol with the Dolomite mountains surrounding us. Sigh. Until next year again. What I always take home is hundreds of pictures of our holiday, the kids, the mountains, the food and everything that I wanted to capture with my camera and file under Summer Holiday.

When I look back at the pictures from the past, I sometimes think how curious it is to be able to store snippets of our lives in one small memory disk. Especially both my kids, whose few years are all stored in catalogued pictures of birthdays, Christmases and holidays, most often in the alps.

They can be a handful and they sometimes frustrate me but when I saw the statues of the kids in the fountain of Ortisei / St. Ulrich, I was wistful about the past years when they were even smaller. Time flies so fast. How I wish I can capture the moment right then when they were playing by the fountain beside the statues of the playing children. There is a profound beauty in children happily playing together.

Ortisei (name in Italian) or St. Ulrich (name in German) is a South Tyrolean town in Val Gardena Valley in Italy. It's one of the most beautiful areas of the Dolomite mountains and for that, these alps were declared by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

It is one of the beautiful towns located at the Val Gardena/Groden Valley. It is a popular place frequented by tourists both in summer and in winter for the sports and beautiful alpine town scenery it offers. Hotels, restaurants and shops are abundant and it can get quite busy during peak seasons. It is definitely a place to visit in the region.

Val Gardena / Groden has been well-known since the 17th-century for its wood sculptures of statues and altars. Since the 19th-century, they have been shipping worldwide to different Catholic churches.

It is known especially for sports enthusiasts of rock climbing, skiing, cycling or just for leisure trekking. It has a number of cable cars or chairlifts to go to higher points of the mountains where there are rifugi or mountain huts.

South Tyrol is a bilingual region of Italy where they keep their old German tradition, culture and language coming from their roots, being still a part of Austria before the 1st World War. It is a unique and incredibly beautiful region that showcases the best designs that nature can give. 

Picture below is an edelweiss flower, an alpine flower belonging to the sunflower family and grows between 1,800 to 3,000 meters of altitude in rocky limestones.

There are so many wonderful words I can describe this area with but I will leave that to you. It is one of my favorite places because it rejuvenates me.  I hope you liked this post about another town in South Tyrol. Until the next town again!