Val di Funes

About this place

Val di Funes, Villnöß in German, is a mountain valley in the Dolomites of South Tyrol, northern Italy, about 29 km northeast of Bolzano in a straight line. Its municipality has about 2,500 residents, most of them German speakers, in small villages such as Santa Maddalena and San Pietro. The valley is bounded to the southeast by the Odle group, a Dolomite range whose highest peaks, Sas Rigais and Furchetta, reach 3,025 metres; together with the Puez group it makes up most of the Puez-Odle Nature Park. The three peaks on the municipality's coat of arms stand for the Odle at the head of the valley. Rolling green meadows fill the valley, dotted with wooden farms and small white chapels with pointed spires, while the jagged grey Odle peaks rise behind like a wall of thorns. The forests turn gold and orange in autumn, and snow covers the peaks in winter. Visitors stop at the well-known viewpoints near Santa Maddalena to photograph the little chapel against the peaks, and walk the Odle trail at the foot of the mountains through woods, pastures and mountain huts. Early morning in autumn gives the best colours and light.