The 9 best small mountain towns within 90 minutes of Bolzano

1. Glurns

Best for walks in a national park. Part of the comune lies in a national park.

1 h 25 min from Bolzano · homes €2,400 to €2,700 a m² in the center · 933 people

Why visit Glurns

The town sits at 907 meters in the upper valley, twenty minutes by car from both the Austrian and Swiss borders, on the Adige river at the southern entrance to the national park. City status was awarded by Emperor Henry of Bohemia in 1304, an honor that has stayed attached to the place ever since even as the population inside the walls stayed under a thousand.

After the Battle of Calven in 1499, the Habsburgs under Emperor Maximilian I rebuilt the town as a bulwark against the forces of the Three Leagues of Graubünden, and it is that rebuilding which produced the fortification standing today. The walled core and the church outside it mark the two halves of the town: the streets and Lauben arcades, paved in cobble, enclosed within the ring of walls, and the parish church standing apart on the riverbank, holding its own late Gothic frescoes away from the defended center.

A city built for defense against the Three Leagues of Graubünden still reads, in its layout, as a place organized entirely around the line where the walls stand and the ground just beyond them: the guarded interior on one side, the river and the open approach to the mountains on the other.

The village sits at 907 meters.

The catch: The nearest airport, Verona, is 3 h 2 min away by road.

What to see in Glurns

• Mura cittadine. Walls built under Emperor Maximilian I after 1499, following the Battle of Calven, as a bulwark against the forces of the Three Leagues of Graubünden. The patrol path still runs continuous along the inside face.
• Centro storico. Walled core of unbroken three-storey Lauben arcades along the two main streets, paved in stone and listed on the Borghi più belli d'Italia.
• Chiesa di San Pancrazio. Parish church just outside the walls on the bank of the Adige, with a Gothic nave and a series of late medieval wall frescoes inside.

How to get to Glurns

Bolzano is about 1 h 25 min away by road.

Everything we know about Glurns

2. Fortezza

Best for a trip without a car. The train stops in the commune.

41 min from Bolzano · homes €2,200 to €2,500 a m² in the center · 1,106 people

Why visit Fortezza

Fortezza sits at 750 meters in the Isarco/Eisack valley, on the trunk railway line between Bolzano/Bozen and the Brenner pass. The narrows here mark the point where the Pusteria valley joins the main Isarco corridor running north to Innsbruck, which is what drew Austria-Hungary to fortify the site and what still gives the village its railway junction today.

The fortress was designed by Franz von Scholl on direct orders from Emperor Francis I, whose name it carries in German as Franzensfeste. After 1918 it passed to the Italian army.

The village below is small, about 1,100 residents, predominantly German-speaking, built around a single main square, the railway station, and the parish church at its core. The cycle path running through on its way east to San Candido/Innichen keeps the fortress in view for kilometers, a reminder that the settlement below has always been the smaller, later counterpart to the works above it: the valley junction made the place strategically necessary, and the fortress built to hold it is still what the village is organized around.

The village sits at 750 meters.

The catch: January nights average 4 degrees below zero.

What to see in Fortezza

• Forte di Fortezza / Franzensfeste. A 65-hectare complex of three connected forts on opposite banks of the river, built to defend the Isarco/Pusteria junction. Now a permanent exhibition site, with a program covering the architecture and history of the Habsburg defence system and a run as Manifesta biennial venue in 2008.
• Stazione di Fortezza/Franzensfeste. A stone station building from 1867, still in active use, marking the point where the Pusteria branch leaves the main Brenner line.
• Parrocchia di Sant'Eligio (St. Eligius). A parish church from 1820 on the village square, the center of the small German-speaking community before the fortress above it existed.

How to get to Fortezza

It has its own railway station. Bolzano is about 41 min away by road. The full route from Verona.

Everything we know about Fortezza

3. Corvara in Badia

Best for a small town. 1,446 people live here.

1 h 15 min from Bolzano · homes €4,200 to €8,300 a m² in the center · 1,446 people

Why visit Corvara in Badia

Corvara sits at 1,568 meters in a wide basin at the head of the Val Badia, below the rock spire of the Sassongher and inside the Dolomites UNESCO area. Ladin is the everyday language: in the 2024 census 87 percent of residents named it as their first tongue, with Italian and German distant second and third.

The settlement was a scattered group of farms until tourism arrived in the early twentieth century, and Corvara is considered the birthplace of organized Alpine tourism in the Val Badia. The village is one of four bases on the Sellaronda, the forty-kilometre ski circuit that loops the Sella massif through Corvara, Arabba, Canazei and Selva di Val Gardena on a single lift pass.

Above the village, the Pralongià plateau opens a long view to the Marmolada glacier. The Gran Risa piste at the next hamlet of La Villa hosts the men's giant slalom on the World Cup tour each December.

The village sits at 1568 meters.

The catch: January nights average 10 degrees below zero.

What to see in Corvara in Badia

• Chiesa di Santa Caterina. Late Gothic church first documented in 1347 and consecrated to Saint Catherine in 1452, holding the only well-preserved winged altar in Val Badia, dated 1520.
• Sassongher. Rock peak at 2,665 meters above the village, the signature silhouette of Corvara and a classic via ferrata climb on the eastern flank.
• Altopiano di Pralongià. Grassy plateau above the village reached by cable car, with open views to the Marmolada glacier and the surrounding Dolomite groups.

How to get to Corvara in Badia

Bolzano is about 1 h 15 min away by road.

Everything we know about Corvara in Badia

4. San Pancrazio

50 min from Bolzano · homes €2,000 to €2,500 a m² in the center · 1,549 people

Why visit San Pancrazio

San Pancrazio (St. Pankraz in German) sits at 736 meters at the mouth of the Ultental (Val d'Ultimo in Italian), one of the most isolated alpine side-valleys of the Adige basin in South Tyrol. San Pancrazio is one of the valley's two comuni, with Ultimo further up; 92% of residents speak German as their first language, and the local economy is still organized around alpine pasturing on the south-facing slopes of the Maddalena group and the Ortles range to the south-west.

The parish church of San Pancrazio Martire was rebuilt in 1796 in late-Baroque style after fire, with the tall narrow Tyrolean bell tower visible from the valley road. The real draw is the Ultental itself: the protected Larici Millenari (Lahnerlärchen) above San Pancrazio include several larches over 800 years old, some of the oldest documented in Europe, and the Lahner Säge open-air sawmill museum a few kilometers up the valley preserves the 17th-century water-powered timber processing that built the Tyrolean church roofs.

The Stelvio National Park boundary passes just south of the village.

The village sits at 736 meters.

The catch: January nights average 5 degrees below zero.

What to see in San Pancrazio

• Larici Millenari di San Gertrude (Lahnerlärchen). Protected stand of larches above San Pancrazio, several documented at over 800 years old, some of the oldest verified larches in Europe. A signed circular walking trail.
• Chiesa di San Pancrazio Martire (St. Pankraz). Late-Baroque parish church rebuilt 1796 after a fire, with the tall Tyrolean bell tower that anchors the village skyline.
• Lahner Säge: open-air sawmill museum. 17th-century water-powered sawmill a few kilometers up the Ultental, preserved as an open-air museum demonstrating the Tyrolean timber processing that built the region's church roofs.

How to get to San Pancrazio

Bolzano is about 50 min away by road.

Everything we know about San Pancrazio

5. Falcade

Best for a ski week. There is a mapped ski area in the comune.

1 h 17 min from Bolzano · homes €1,900 to €2,800 a m² in the center · 1,746 people

Why visit Falcade

Falcade sits at 1,148 meters in the upper Biois valley, the southwestern corner of the Agordino, ringed by the Focobon group, the Pale di San Martino, the Marmolada and the Civetta. First settlers arrived between the tenth and eleventh centuries, and trade with the neighboring Fassa and Fiemme valleys built through the medieval period, carried over the col that still connects the Agordino to Trentino.

The village works as a hinge between two mountain worlds: the sharp Focobon spires of the Pale di San Martino rise to the south and the Marmolada group to the north, with the pass threading west between them as it has since travelers first needed shelter there. Summer walkers follow the Alta Via 2 through this gap, between peaks that were shaped by the same geology the UNESCO listing recognizes.

The valley's long function as a crossing point, medieval trade route, refuge, ski link, explains why a settlement this size sits exactly where the Agordino gives way to Trentino.

The village sits at 1148 meters.

The catch: January nights average 7 degrees below zero.

What to see in Falcade

• Focobon group. The massif rises directly south of the village, its spires visible from the valley floor. The Alta Via 2 threads past it toward the Forcella delle Comelle.
• Trevalli ski area. Linked ski domain across the Falcade-Le Buse and Passo San Pellegrino-Alpe Lusia areas, slopes up to 2,500 meters.
• Passo San Pellegrino. 1,918-meter col into the Val di Fassa, with a travelers' hospice documented from 1358 and now a working ski station.

How to get to Falcade

Bolzano is about 1 h 17 min away by road.

Everything we know about Falcade

6. Canazei

Best for a long lunch. Food guides list four tables here.

1 h 4 min from Bolzano · homes €4,400 to €5,300 a m² in the center · 1,915 people

Why visit Canazei

Canazei sits at 1,465 meters at the head of the Val di Fassa, one of the thirty highest towns in Italy, ringed by the Marmolada, the Sella Group and the Sassolungo. The commune includes the hamlets of Alba, Gries and Penia, which run together with the central village along the upper Avisio river.

Eight in ten residents speak Ladin as their first language, part of the small Dolomitic minority recognized by the autonomous statute, and the local Folk Group preserves the costumes, music and language traditions of the valley. The Belvedere and Ciampac lifts leave from the village itself, Col Rodella rises from neighbouring Campitello, and the Marmolada cable car runs from Malga Ciapèla beyond the Fedaia Pass, all within the Dolomiti Superski circuit.

The Pordoi cable car climbs to the Terrazza delle Dolomiti at 2,950 meters for a full view of the surrounding peaks, including the Marmolada at 3,343 meters, the highest summit in the Dolomites and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2009.

The village sits at 1465 meters.

The catch: The nearest airport, Venice Marco Polo, is 2 h 35 min away by road.

What to see in Canazei

• Marmolada. Highest summit in the Dolomites at 3,343 meters, reached by cable car from Malga Ciapèla beyond the Fedaia Pass, with the largest glacier in the Dolomites on its northern face.
• Passo Pordoi. Dolomite road pass at 2,239 meters with a cable car to Sass Pordoi at 2,950 meters, called the Terrazza delle Dolomiti for its 360-degree view.
• Belvedere Ski Area. Main winter base of Canazei, gondola-linked to the Sellaronda circuit and the lift system across the four Ladin valleys of the Sella group.

How to get to Canazei

Bolzano is about 1 h 4 min away by road.

Everything we know about Canazei

7. Moena

Best for a long lunch. Food guides list six tables here.

1 h 5 min from Bolzano · homes €3,400 to €4,400 a m² in the center · 2,571 people

Why visit Moena

Moena sits at 1,184 meters at the entrance to Val di Fassa, which climbs north toward Canazei and the Sella massif. To the southeast a side valley rises toward the Passo San Pellegrino and the Marmolada group, while a plateau above the village, reached by cable car, opens onto the Catinaccio, Latemar and Pale di San Martino to the south.

The village is the largest in the valley and functions as its entrance point, with the high peaks visible on three sides and the pastures of San Pellegrino working land rather than backdrop. What holds the place together is less the geography than what the two festivals and the church commemorate: a language kept alive as an everyday tongue, a costume festival built around a foreign soldier's arrival, and a painter who left and came back.

Moena reads less like a single Alpine village and more like a crossing point, between valleys, and between a local story and the outside events that keep getting folded into it.

The village sits at 1184 meters.

The catch: The nearest airport, Treviso, is 2 h 30 min away by road.

What to see in Moena

• Chiesa di San Vigilio. Parish church rebuilt across the centuries, with a gilded wooden altar by Valentino Poschiavin and 18th-century paintings by Valentino Rovisi. It also holds work by Domenico Chiocchetti.
• Chiesa di San Volfango. Small Romanesque church next to the parish, with 15th-century frescoes and a wooden Baroque ceiling carved by Giovanni Guadagnini in the 17th century.
• Museo Ladin de Fascia (sezione Moena). The Ladin cultural museum network with a Moena exhibit on local language, costume and rural life in the lower Val di Fassa.

How to get to Moena

Bolzano is about 1 h 5 min away by road.

Everything we know about Moena

8. Cavalese

Best for everyday life on foot. Eight of the ten everyday services we look for are mapped within 500 meters of the center.

48 min from Bolzano · homes €2,500 to €3,100 a m² in the center · 4,010 people

Why visit Cavalese

Cavalese sits at 1,000 meters on a south-facing terrace above the Avisio, forty kilometers northeast of Trento, the main town of the Val di Fiemme. The valley's eleven communes held their forest commons in common under the Magnifica Comunità, the self-governing body founded by the founding charter of 1111, and Cavalese has kept its seat through the Bavarian abolition of 1807 and every legal change since.

The valley floor carries the working memory of that governance: the archive of parchments, the frescoed council chambers, the bench in the open air where disputes were once judged. Above the town, the cableway to the Alpe Cermis climbs to about 2,000 meters, and the cycle path along the Avisio ties Cavalese to the other Fiemme communes strung along the valley floor from Molina up to Predazzo and on into Fassa.

Nine centuries of continuous self-rule and a valley of communes bound by a single river explain why Cavalese reads less like a single town than like the administrative floor of the whole valley.

The village sits at 1000 meters.

The catch: January nights average 4 degrees below zero.

What to see in Cavalese

• Palazzo della Magnifica Comunità di Fiemme. Medieval bishop's residence enlarged in the Renaissance, seat of the community since 1810, with a picture gallery and an archive of parchments from the thirteenth to eighteenth centuries.
• Pieve di Santa Maria Assunta. Parish church of Cavalese, consecrated in 1134 on an older foundation, standing beside the park where the valley's representatives once sat in judgment.
• Banco della Reson. Stone bench in the Parco della Pieve where the Scario and the Regolani of the valley communes met as an open-air assembly to judge valley disputes until 1808.

How to get to Cavalese

Bolzano is about 48 min away by road.

Everything we know about Cavalese

9. St. Ulrich

Best for a ski week. There is a mapped ski area in the comune.

43 min from Bolzano · homes €5,400 to €9,500 a m² in the center · 4,724 people

Why visit St. Ulrich

The valley climbs east from the Eisack toward the Sella and the Sassolungo, and the town sits at its middle point. Almost all residents speak Ladin at home, and signage runs trilingual in Ladin, German and Italian.

Three lifts leave the village in three directions: one to the northwest onto a plateau, one north onto a long ridge below the Odle, and one south onto a high meadow that forms the valley's southern edge. The museum inside the Cësa di Ladins holds the record of the valley's carving tradition alongside fossils from the surrounding peaks and material on Luis Trenker, the mountaineer-actor-director who came from here.

The layout, a village hemmed by three lifts and named for the saint of its own parish church, reads as a place organized entirely around the ground it sits on: craft below, peaks and plateaus in every direction above.

The village sits at 1236 meters.

The catch: January nights average 6 degrees below zero.

What to see in St. Ulrich

• Parish church (St. Ulrich/San Udalrico). Neoclassical church with Baroque elements, rebuilt in the late 18th century, dedicated to the Epiphany and to St. Ulrich, the patron saint who gives the town its German name.
• Museum Gherdëina. Local-heritage museum inside the Cësa di Ladins documenting four centuries of woodcarving, wooden toys, sacred sculpture, Dolomite fossils and the Trenker family archive.
• Seceda. Long limestone ridge reached by cable car from the village, with the Odle/Geisler peaks rising sharply to the north and high meadows dropping toward the valley.

How to get to St. Ulrich

Bolzano is about 43 min away by road.

Everything we know about St. Ulrich