Mighty Dolomites, Bressanone Italy
June 2, 2024 - by Muriel Dassen
Most probably you all are familiar with the Dolomites with its typical steep rock faces and peaks and maybe you’ve already been or it is – or at least should be – on your bike it list. The Dolomites are the mountain range in the North of Italy, at the South side of the Alps. The Dolomites are also situated in Alto Adige, Südtirol, Italy's northernmost autonomous province which is trilingual: German, Italian and Ladin, a Romance language closely related to Rhaeto-Romanic, have official status, but over 62% of the population is German-speaking. Hence why Bressanone is also named Brixen and most towns here have an Italian and German name.
Bressanone is the oldest city in Tyrol situated in the middle and giving very easy access to all the nice winding roads in the Dolomites and therefor our central point in the Mighty Dolomites tour.
Of course you can download the GPX / ITN files and full e-books of the 2 rides we have in this tour via our roadtrip planner but you can already find the info in this blogpost.
Duomo di Santa Maria Assunta e San Cassiono
The centre of Bressanone is dominated by its Duomo and bishops' palace, who ruled here for a long time and with its two characteristic towers the Duomo is thé eye-catcher of Bressanone. The original cathedral dates back to 901, but in the
twelfth century the church went completely up in flames. A new cathedral was built, expanded and largely rebuilt in the 18th century, hence the baroque look. But its 12th century cloister decorated with 15th century fresco’s has been preserved. And its
definitely worth to stroll along this cloister as it might be even more beautiful than the Duomo itself. With paintings by local artists from the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. The frescoes are also called La Bibbia dei Poveri, the Bible of the poor,
because they tell the stories from the Bible to those who could not read.
Museo Diocesani and Museo dei Presepi
The bishop's palace now houses the Diocesan Museum, founded in 1901 to counteract the deportation of ecclesiastical works of art, but was also intended as a training purpose for theologians, the diocesan clergy and contemporary artists. But it also has a separate crib collection with locally made wooden Christmas figures. If you are interested: visit the website of the museum here. We just quickly peaked in as we only wanted to get a glimpse of the palace’s courtyard as it is beautiful on its own.
At the beginning of the shopping street sits this classic konditorei, which is busy at any time of day. Perfect in the morning to have a coffee with a brioche to start the day like the Italians do. Around coffee time, a lot of little groups enjoy coffees and cakes. And if you want to have lunch there, make sure you're on time to get a table!
Over time Bressanone has welcomed many guests from all over the world. But the most special guest was not a human. Elephant Soliman arrived here on 21 December 1551, as a wedding gift for the archbishop of Austria. To get the animal used to the
climate of the mountains, it stayed in Bressanone for 14 days. As you can imagine the whole town came to see Solomon at least once. After Solomon travelled on the inn where the elephant stayed was renamed Hotel Elephant. She had the elephant immortalised on the façade of the hotel, so that the special animal and its beautiful story would never be forgotten. As this Hotel Elephant has private parking this is – of course – in our list of recommendations of where to stay here in Bressanone.
Also don’t miss Stufels. It is not only the oldest but also the most picturesque part of the city, sandwiched between the rivers Isarco and Rienza. I read someone calling it a hidden gem where you can enjoy picturesque alleys, colourful houses and flowery balconies.
Just outside of Bressanone is the Abbazia di Novacella, or Monastery of Neustift. This particularly beautiful Augustinian monastery was founded in 1142 by Bishop Hartmann. Since then, it has been a stop for pilgrims but also welcomes ordinary visitors…..like us. I read that you should really feel as if you have stepped into the Middle Ages and that’s true. You can visit the magnificent late Baroque basilica, the Gothic cloister, the Pozzo delle Meraviglie ('well of wonders'), Castel Sant'Angelo, the library with more than ninety thousand unique manuscripts, the painting collection and the vineyards surrounding the monastery. Because wine has been made here as early as the twelfth century, but on a much smaller scale than today. A special place and if you have some time very worth to visit. Visit this website for more information.
Bressanone is the biggest town in Sud Tirol after Bolzano and Merano and we are sure that you will, as we were, charmed by its centre.
Recommended hotels:
Rating on Booking.com: Superb 9.1
With private parking, fee applicable
With bar and restaurant
With swimming pool
In city centre of Bressanone
Rating on Booking.com: Very good 8.2
With private parking garage, reservation needed and fee applicable
With bar and restaurant
In city centre of Bressanone
Rating on booking.com: Very good 8.0
With free on site - not covered - private parking
With restaurant
In city centre of Bressanone
Rating on Booking.com: Very good 8.5
With private - not covered - parking, small fee applicable
With bar
5 minutes walk into city centre of Bressanone
Rating on booking.com: Very good 8.2
With free on site - not covered - parking
With bar and restaurant
With swimming pool
25 to 30 minutes walk into city centre of Bressanone
With city campsite behind hotel
Ride 1
The ride is some 210 km / 130 miles and we absolutely LOVED it! Johan even described it as one of the BEST 1 days rides we've ever done! The ride is over some of the most famous passes in the Dolomites: Passo delle Erbe, Passo Campolongo, Passo Pordoi and Passo Sella. And with this the ride offers some amazing mountain riding and amazing views on those typical Dolomite peaks. With very enjoyable stops. So we had to rate this ride 10 out of 10!
If you like to stop for coffee, we added a stop in San Martino in Badia. Nothing spectacular but its surroundings are amazing!
On top of the Passo Pordoi we’re already at 2.239 meters / 7.345 ft with some pretty amazing views. But you can also go up even further with the Funivia Sass Pordoi which will take you to 2.950 metres / 9.678 ft. As we still have the Passo Sella and more nice riding to do in this ride ánd the funicia is not cheap, we stuck with the view from the parking, but if you would be interested you can visit this website for more information.
Amazing to ride through those typical Dolomites peaks. What about this Passo Sella, one of the most famous ones in the Dolimites. Well, we understand why: it's beautiful!
For if you haven’t had any lunch yet, we added a bike parking in Ortisei, the main holiday resort of Val Gardena and the Alpe di Siusi. And that’s partly due to its atmospheric and authentic look and facilities. So a good stop for lunch an a bit of a stretch of the legs! After the lunchstop in this ride you could cut the ride short as you could just follow the main road to Bressanone from Ortisei. But although we have done the famous passes already, we do have some surprisingly nice riding in this area to do with a last impressive stop and going back to Bressanone via backroads. You decide!
Because we added a stop in this ride at the Café Erdpyramiden. From the nice little terrace you can already get a view on the - apparently - famous earth pyramids. And if you'd want to have a closer look you can follow the easy trail to the 2 viewing platforms, and get the famous view on the earth pyramids in Lengmoos with the little St. Nicholas church in Mittelberg and the Geislern, Sella, Alpe di Siusi and Sassolungo in the background. Mighty en pretty indeed!
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Ride 2
I think that with this ride 2 of 220 km / 135 miles going West of Bressanone we will be leaving the official Dolomite area. But we know from experience that there is a lot of nice riding to do in that area as well and that you should still get some pretty nice views on the peaks of the Mighty Dolomites from a bit of a distance. And we will be doing the Passo Palade and the Jaufenpass! So another 2 famous mountain passes to cross of your list.
OK, it is just next to a Harley dealer – that’s why we know there is a biker bar here in Bolzano as we had to stop here on an earlier roadtrip – but all bikers are welcome here. For a coffee of a refreshing drink. Of course you could also go into Bolzano
itself, but then you’d have to cross the river and we just wanted a quick drink before we will be conquering the Passo Palade!
Going up the Passo Palade is already a pretty nice ride, but especially the descend, coming down from 1518 m / 4980 ft is amazing with some spectacular views over the valley of the Adige river. We added this photo stop to the ride for you to enjoy as well!
We added a bikeparking in from where you can easily to walk into Merano to enjoy the city for a bit and have some nice lunch here. And although this city is located in the far north of Italy where we are doing this tour, you can enjoy a lovely Mediterranean atmosphere. Merano is mainly known for the popular Sissi trail. Austrian Empress Sissi took up residence in Castel Trauttmansdorff just a bit outside of Merano on 16 October 1870. Together with her two-year-old daughter Marie Valerie and as many as a hundred and two servants, she lived in the castle to enjoy the fresh mountain air.
Jaufenpass - Passo di Monte Giovo
The Passo di Monte Giovo is better known as the Jaufenpass. It is a very winding road that has 20 real hairpins and a total length of 39 km with the highest point at 2.094 m / 6.870ft. This makes it Italy’s most Northern ánd highest mountain pass! It is situated in the heart of Süd Tirol, one of the top 10 Alpine passes and enjoys great popularity in the motorcycling world. For a very good reason! And the views are pretty amazing from the top. We really love to do mountainpasses like these and
think if you do to it should definitely be on your bike it list if you haven’t been yet. But if you’re not that experienced with mountain passes yet, maybe it is best to start with some easier and lower ones.
Go on your own QUAZY RIDE
You can download the GPX / ITN files of the rides and the full e-books via our roadtrip planner and then we hope you will enjoy the rides you will be doing in this Quazy Rides Mighty Dolomites tour and your stay in Bressanone.
If you are posting on social media, don't forget to tag Quazy Rides or use the #QuazyRides, because we LOVE to see you having fun with our rides.
