Schenna

The hotel used by HF Holidays in Schenna is totally amazing. It is called Schenna Resort because it is several hotels combined into one. You can watch this short film to get an idea of the facilities. They focus on 'Wellness' and offer lots of free activities during the day. Take a look at this weekly program.

Schenna Resort - Weekly Program

The theory is that Wellness Holidays improve physical well-being, happiness, and productivity, giving you a fresh perspective, improving creativity, resilience, problem solving, and capacity for coping with stress. I concur and I think that this also applies Walking and Cycling Holidays in general.

The hotel does offer short walks but mainly concentrates on spa type treatments. The concept is not new. Merano, further down the valley from Schenna, has been a spa town for a long time. Their favourite visitor was Empress Elisabeth of Austria. She arrived in the autumn of 1870 with an entourage of 102 for an extended stay to try to improve the health of her two year old daughter. Sissi, as she is affectionately known locally, was a keen walker and she returned to the town on three further occasions. On one of our walks we saw a sign by a tap sticking out of the wall in the forest explaining that she had drunk from it!

It is a fantastic area for walking. You can use cable cars to gain access to paths that wind their way, high up across the hillside. Sometimes crossing cliffs that seem impenetrable. Look at these pictures taken on two sections of the Meranoer Hohenweg.

Looking down at the next section of the path and the suspension bridge

The well engineered suspension bridge

Climbing back up again to regain lost height

Goats on the track. They weren't moving from that shady spot!

Some of the walks had to be adjusted because there had been a lot of late snow. Apparently the last few weeks had been 10 degrees colder than average and the coldest for 29 years.

We walked through here

We didn't walk across that!

On another walk we went up the very modern Merano 2000 cable car and got off at the mid-station. It reminded me of the sort of thing you might see in the original 1960s Thunderbirds Are Go TV Series.

 

 You can visit the Trauttsmansdorff Botanical Gardens, head down to Merano, visit Ötzi in Bolzano (see previous post) or just admire the incredible views.

A flower meadow at Trauttsmansdorff Gardens

A view of the Dolomites