Things to do
An open-air art gallery where the installations slowly dissolve into the forest. The finest sparkling wine in Italy tasted above the valley that makes it. Dolomite peaks that UNESCO describes as among the most beautiful landscapes on Earth.
The Council of Trent sat in this city between 1545 and 1563 and produced the Catholic Church’s response to the Protestant Reformation. That history sits inside a city of genuine beauty: Piazza Duomo with its Romanesque cathedral and Baroque Neptune fountain; the frescoed facades of Renaissance mansions; Castel Buonconsiglio, the late-Gothic castle of the Prince-Bishops, which contains one of the finest medieval fresco cycles in Italy (the Torre dell’Aquila months). The underground Roman excavations at Piazza Cesare Battisti are visible through glass beneath the modern square. Walk it all in a morning; stay for dinner.
discovertrentino.it →The Dolomites form the eastern edge of Trentino and extend into the neighbouring provinces of Bolzano, Belluno, and Udine. They were designated UNESCO World Heritage in 2009 for their exceptional natural beauty — a landscape of pale grey-pink vertical towers formed from ancient coral reefs pushed 3,000 metres upward by tectonic collision. In summer they are among the finest hiking destinations in Europe: marked trails at every level of difficulty, mountain rifugios serving food and wine, and the Dolomiti di Brenta accessible from Madonna di Campiglio. In winter they host some of the most beautiful skiing in the Alps. Pale di San Martino and the Catinaccio group glow orange at sunset in a phenomenon known as enrosadira.
Summer: hiking June–September. Winter: skiing December–March.
One of the most quietly extraordinary cultural destinations in Italy — an open-air art gallery set deep in the forested hills of Val di Sella above Borgo Valsugana, where artists are invited to create installations using only natural materials found in the surrounding woodland. The works slowly degrade back into the landscape over months and years; the gallery is never the same twice. Mint-green meadows give rise to sculptures designed to meld with the trees. The approach on foot through the forest is part of the experience. Nothing about Arte Sella is how you expect it to be.
artesella.it →Open year-round; best in summer and early autumn.
The Lunelli family has been making sparkling wine in the cellars above Trento since 1902 using the traditional method — the same process as Champagne, with secondary fermentation in the bottle. The result is, by any serious measure, the finest sparkling wine produced in Italy. Ferrari Trento runs excellent winery tours through the historic cellars and finishes with a tasting of the full range. Villa Margon, the estate’s 16th-century villa with extraordinary frescoed halls, is occasionally open to visitors. Call ahead for availability. Book the tour before you arrive — it fills quickly in summer.
ferraritrento.com →The most fashionable ski resort in the Trentino Dolomites and one of the most beautiful in Italy — connected to the Skirama Dolomiti network of 150 runs. In summer, the same lifts access the Dolomiti di Brenta for some of the finest via ferrata and high-altitude hiking in the Alps. At the centre of the village, the former hunting lodge of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria — who came here from Vienna to shoot chamois and ibex — is now the most atmospheric bar in the resort. An aperitif there as the lifts close is one of the finer rituals of a Trentino winter.
campigliodolomiti.it →In Rovereto, 30 minutes south of Trento by train, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art is housed in a building by Mario Botta — a monumental circular courtyard under a glass dome that is itself worth the journey. The collection covers Italian and international modernism with particular strength in Futurism, the movement that was born in the industrial north of Italy in the early 20th century. The War History Museum in the same city covers the Dolomite front of the First World War, where entire battles were fought at 3,000 metres in conditions that are difficult to imagine from the valley floor.
mart.tn.it →Closed Mondays. Combined ticket available for both Rovereto museums.