Italy
Val di Funes
Green valley floor rising to jagged Odle peaks, the view that defines the Dolomites.
The valley floor is so green it looks lit from below. Above it, the Odle peaks rise in a wall of grey dolomite, jagged and sudden, as if the earth cracked open and forgot to close. Val di Funes in the Italian Dolomites is the view that ends up on every calendar — but standing in it is something no photograph prepares you for.
Val di Funes is a narrow valley in Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy, running south from Bressanone into the heart of the Puez-Odle Nature Park. The Odle mountain group, a chain of pale dolomite spires, forms the valley's southern wall and is part of the UNESCO-listed Dolomites. The Church of St. Johann in Ranui, sitting alone in a meadow with the Odle behind it, has become one of the most photographed scenes in the Alps. The valley's South Tyrolean culture blends Austrian and Italian traditions — most residents speak German as a first language, and the wooden Stuben in local guesthouses reflect centuries of Alpine hospitality. Hiking trails range from gentle meadow paths to the high-altitude Adolf Munkel Trail, which traverses the base of the Odle at around 2,000 metres.
Couple
Morning mist in the meadow, a walk to the Adolf Munkel viewpoint, then apple strudel in a wood-panelled Stube — Val di Funes is quiet, cinematic, and made for two.
Family
The meadow walks are flat and manageable for young legs, the cable cars remove the hard climbing, and the Stuben serve Kaiserschmarrn that children devour without complaint.
Solo
The Puez-Odle circuit is one of the finest day hikes in the Dolomites, and the valley's silence at dawn — before anyone else is up — belongs entirely to you.
Friends
Base yourselves in a mountain guesthouse and hike a different trail each day. The Odle ridgeline alone offers routes from gentle to technical, and the evenings demand speck and dark beer.
- The valley has flat, paved paths running alongside the stream from the village of Santa Maddalena for four kilometres — pushchair-accessible throughout.
- The church of Santa Maddalena with the Odle peaks behind it is the most photographed view in the Dolomites — at dawn it is possible to be there alone.
- The Rifugio Adolf Munkel above the valley floor is reached by a 90-minute trail — a stone hut serving the Törggelen autumn tradition of wine and roasted chestnuts.
- The valley sits inside the Puez-Odle Nature Park — no cars on the upper trails, most accommodation is farm-based agriturismo with working animals on site.
Apple strudel warm from the oven, the pastry stretched thin enough to read through.
Speck carved at the table in a wood-panelled Stube, paired with dark rye bread.
Kaiserschmarrn torn into pieces and dusted with icing sugar in a mountain hut.
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