The Sarntal Alps
There’s a range in South Tyrol that most travelers driving toward the Dolomites never even glance at, and that’s exactly its charm. The Sarntal Alps (Sarentino Alps, or Sarntaler Alpen in German) rise in a wide horseshoe around the Sarntal valley, just a short drive north of Bozen/Bolzano, yet they feel like an entirely different world: quiet pastures, dark stone-pine forests, granite lakes, and ridgelines that rarely climb past 2,700 meters. No cable cars packed with day-trippers, no via ferrata queues, just alpine solitude.
Why The Heart of South Tyrol?
The nickname isn’t just poetic license. Look at a map and the Sarntal Alps genuinely trace the outline of a heart, wrapping protectively around the valley they enclose. But the name works on a second level too: geographically, this is close to the literal center of South Tyrol. Researchers from Eurac in Bolzano actually calculated the region’s exact geographical midpoint, and it turned out to sit right in this range, on the plateau above Villanders, no less.
Then there’s the landscape itself. Nearly half of the Sarntal valley’s 300+ square kilometers is covered in coniferous forest, earning it a second nickname, the “green heart” of South Tyrol. Wander here and you get the sense of a landscape that has been left alone: legend-soaked lakes like Durnholz, granite outcrops, remote farmsteads clinging to steep slopes, and a dialect and way of life that feel unusually intact. From the higher ridges, the views stretch from the Zillertal Alps and Ötztal Alps all the way to the glaciers of the Ortler massif and, to the east, the jagged skyline of the Dolomites. It’s a 360-degree postcard of everything South Tyrol is known for, seen from a range most people skip entirely.
The Hidden Plateau: Villanderer Alm
If the Sarntal Alps are the quiet heart of the region, the Villanderer Alm (Alpe di Villandro) is its best-kept secret. Perched above the village of Villanders, between the Sarntal and Eisacktal valleys, this high plateau unfolds across roughly 20 square kilometers between 1,700 and 2,509 meters, making it the second-largest alpine pasture in South Tyrol, and one of the largest in all of Europe. Its bigger, far more famous cousin, the Alpe di Siusi, gets all the tourist traffic.
The Villanderer Alm gets the peace.
What makes it special isn’t drama — there are no towering rock faces here — it’s scale and texture. Endless rolling meadows dissolve into high moors, scattered mountain lakes, and stands of Swiss stone pine, dotted with small family-run huts serving homemade Schlutzkrapfen and goulash with dumplings. The plateau is often called the “balcony of the Dolomites,” and for good reason: from up here you get an uninterrupted panorama of the Alpe di Siusi massif, the Sciliar, the Odle group, and the Sella and Sasso Lungo peaks, all without the crowds those mountains usually attract.
And then there’s that geographical footnote that gives the plateau its quiet fame: near the tiny Totenkirchl chapel, scientists pinpointed the exact geographical center of South Tyrol, right here on the Villanderer Alm. Stand at that spot and, in a very literal sense, you’re standing at the heart of the province, inside the mountains that share its nickname.