Trentino-Alto Adige · Trento
Moena
The largest village in the valley, Ladin-speaking, dressed in Ottoman costume for three days every August.
- Best time
- Jun–Sep, Dec–Mar
- By car
- 1 h 5 min from Bolzano
- Population
- 2,563
Known for
LA TURCHIA
Three-day August festival reenacting an Ottoman janissary's arrival in Moena after the 1683 Siege of Vienna, with costumes, a sultan and Turkish flags hung from windows.
LADIN VAL DI FASSA
About three-quarters of residents speak Ladin as their first language. Moena holds the seat of the Comun General de Fascia, the Ladin institutional body.
DOMENICO CHIOCCHETTI
Moena painter who decorated the Italian Chapel on Lamb Holm in Orkney while held there as a prisoner of war, then returned to live in the village.
- J4°
- F6°
- M8°
- A12°
- M16°
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- S18°
- O14°
- N8°
- D4°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime averages, 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
The festa: Vigilio di Trento, 26 June
Why come
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.
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Moena in our articles
The best high-altitude villages with a serious restaurant in Trentino-Alto Adige6 towns, Moena among them.
The best small mountain towns within 90 minutes of Bolzano6 towns, Moena among them.
The best small towns that eat well in the province of Trento7 towns, Moena among them.
The 8 best high-altitude villages within 90 minutes of Bolzano8 towns, Moena among them.
How to get there
From Venice (TSF), about 2 h 30 min by car.
Verona (VRN) is about 2 h 33 min away.
By car from the center of Bolzano 1 h 5 min or Trento 1 h 26 min.
Coming by train into Trento? Moena is about 1 h 26 min away by road.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
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.
Val San Pellegrino
Side valley climbing southeast from Moena toward the Passo San Pellegrino and the Marmolada group, with summer alpine pastures and winter ski runs.
Alpe Lusia
Plateau above Moena reached by cable car, with views onto the Catinaccio, Latemar and Pale di San Martino in the southern Dolomites.
The slow-trip planner
Building a trip? Find where Moena fits in a slow Italy circuit.
Answer six questions. We will shape a geographically coherent slow trip from the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Yours to save and share.
We recommend
Where to eat
Not our picks, but places the guides put their name to: a Michelin star, a Gambero Rosso fork, a Slow Food snail, a Michelin Key for the hotels. Worth a table, a counter, or a night when you pass through.
InAlto Alfio Ghezzi DolomitesBistrot
InAlto Alfio Ghezzi Dolomites carries two Gambero Rosso tables, plus a spot in the Michelin Guide.
Malga PannaRistorante
Malga Panna holds one Michelin star and two Gambero Rosso forks (85/100).
Malga RoncacAgriturismo
Malga Roncac holds a Gambero Rosso listing and a spot in the Michelin Guide.
Agritur El MasRistorante
Agritur El Mas holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.
ForestaRistorante
Foresta has a Michelin Bib Gourmand to its name.
Ostaria TyrolRistorante
A Michelin Bib Gourmand, at Ostaria Tyrol.
Before you sit down: how to order at a restaurant, how to spot a tourist trap, what aperitivo is and how the Italian bar works.
Through the year
What happens here
Feasts and festivals that come back year after year. We give the month rather than the date, because the date moves and the month rarely does. Check with the source before you plan a journey around one.
Festival del Puzzonefood festival
usually held in September. sagritaly.com
Living here
- Population 2,563, down 4.8% since 2015
- Remotei
- Pharmacy in town
- Nearest public hospital Cavalese, 22 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Full fibre reaches 65% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 3, low hazard
- Nearest airport Venice, 2 h 30 min drive
- Regional capital Bolzano, 1 h 5 min drive
Could you live here?
Moena is at the end of the road.
- A village of 2,563. The nearest town of 5,000 people, Primiero San Martino di Castrozza, is 1 h 8 min away: past our 15-minute rule, which makes this the end of the road.
- Bolzano/Bozen, a city of 106,107, is 1 h 8 min by car. Further than our 30 to 60 minutes, a long way for the hospital visit or the monthly shopping.
The rules come from our series Where to Move in Italy, written from the places we have lived: Part 1, The End of the Road · Part 2, The Small Town · Part 3, The City · Part 4, The Postcard · Part 5, The Other Half. The towns we would pick are in Part 6, The Best Towns.
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Common questions
- What is Moena known for?
- Moena is the largest village in the valley, Ladin-speaking, dressed in Ottoman costume for three days every August.
- Where is Moena?
- Moena is a comune in the province of Trento, in Trentino-Alto Adige, at 1184 meters above sea level.
- What is the nearest airport to Moena?
- Venice (TSF), about 2 h 30 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Bolzano to Moena?
- About 1 h 5 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Moena?
- Best in Jun–Sep, Dec–Mar. July is the warmest month, averaging 23 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 20 rain days.
- Is there a sagra or a festival in Moena?
- Yes. Festival del Puzzone. September is when the first of them falls.
- Which other towns are like Moena?
- Canazei, Falcade and San Vito di Cadore.
- How many people live in Moena?
- 2,563 at the 2023 count.
- Is Moena a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Moena is at the end of the road: the nearest town of 5,000 people, Primiero San Martino di Castrozza, is 1 h 8 min away. The nearest city, Bolzano/Bozen, is 1 h 8 min away by car. The nearest public hospital is in Cavalese, 22 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 65% of homes.
Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources
Recognized as
The numbers
- Elevation: 1184 m
- Population: 2,563
- Surface area: 82.6 km²
These figures were compiled from public directories: ISTAT, OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.
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What all six share with Moena: high in the mountains · mountain towns above 1,000 metres