The Colle Cable Car, the oldest free-floating cable car in the world, takes you from the city life to an oasis of tranquillity
Image gallery: Colle di Bolzano
Just like Rencio (Rentsch), also Colle (Kohlern) once belonged to the rural municipality of Dodiciville. Today, the charming mountain village with the Schneider Meadows is the highest settlement in Bolzano and an oasis of peace for those who want to escape from city life for a while. One cable car leads up to the Renon high plateau, the second one takes you up to higher altitudes, to the hamlet of Colle. As on the Renon, there is also a mountain road as an alternative.
The Colle Cable Car is worth a mention of its own: It was the oldest free-floating cable car in the world when it went into operation in 1908. After almost a century, it was renewed and overcomes today the almost 1,000 m altitude difference in a few minutes. Then you are in the middle of the Colle Nature Preserve, which is divided into the settlements of Colle dei Contadini and Colle dei Signori - literally Colle of the Farmers and Colle of the Lords. The forests and meadows all around are popular hiking areas, and in between there are still the one or other old villa and an idyllic little church. Here the heat of the valley basin gives way to a summer resort atmosphere.
The wooden lookout tower, which offered a distant view all the way to the Sarentino Alps, was recently demolished. Behind the hamlet, the slopes rise to the highest elevation of Mt. Colle, Mt. Pozza. It is also the highest point of the municipality of Bolzano. At the top, you will find a lookout point and the so-called "Weihbrunnenstoan", a hollowed-out rock in which there is always water, even though there is no water supply. Other hikes lead to the historic St. Isidor Bath or via Flavon Castle to La Costa near Laives, which is famous for its chestnuts in autumn.
