Ortisei

Our first full day in the Val Gardena, based in Ortisei (St. Ulrich in German and Urtijëi in the local Ladin language) in South Tyrol. We walked the route of the old railway to the smaller villages of Santa Cristina and Selva and took the bus back. This railway was built very quickly between September 1915 and February 1916 by Russian and Serbian prisoners of war in atrocious conditions for military purposes. It then continued in use until May 1960 and it’s now a very pleasant, mostly flat, 8.5 kilometre walk. There are notice boards with historical information and old photos of the railway along the way. At one point a tunnel has been preserved so that you can walk through it. The weather was warm and sunny for most of the day, with some rain on just as we got back to our hotel.