Trentino with Children

I wrote these notes in the hope of helping those who, like me, are always looking for affordable solutions suitable for children; in fact, ever since I became a mother I've realised that travelling with offspring in tow is neither simple nor cheap. This year, after a long and exhausting search, we decided to spend our holidays in Trentino, more precisely on the Paganella plateau, a few kilometres from Trento. After a couple of bad experiences in hotels (the mealtimes and nap times almost never match up with the hotel's!!!), we decided to rent an apartment and I must say no choice was ever better; in fact on the homeholidays /Home.asp site we found an excellent solution for us at Fai della Paganella.

The apartment occupied the second floor of a semi-detached house, a well-furnished apartment with a bedroom, a living room with a full kitchen and equipped with every appliance, plus a lovely balcony where we, once the little angel had fallen asleep, tired of having sucked all the blood and energy out of us, refreshed ourselves chatting or reading; then a stone's throw away a beautiful playground and the village. All for the sum of 563 euros for a fifteen-day stay, which isn't too much for fresh air, tranquillity and relief from the summer heat. Every day, besides the obligatory stop at the playground, we'd go to a farm to get fresh milk for the little one, and so we took the opportunity to show him the cowshed with the cows and calves; moreover, not far from the house there are paths, some very easy, that cross the woods; that's as far as our accommodation goes, but there's much more.

The Paganella plateau is particularly suitable for those with small children because it has a lot to offer; I'll start by listing some of the outings we did with a 2-and-a-half-year-old

Outings at Andalo

1 Train ride around the village, I can't tell you Matteo's enthusiasm.. 2 disney fun ambini.htm, it's a huge playground where there's everything and more, including a pool and the riding school, where we let the little one have a lovely ride on the pony. 3 tour of the little lake of Andalo, it's a walk of about an hour that can be done entirely with a pushchair 4 Malga Zambrana atore.php?IDRistoratore=1749 we took the ski lifts and then had a lovely walk; afterwards we stopped to eat at this malga, superb view; there are lots of games for the little one and so we could relax a bit too.

Outings at Fai della Paganella

5 Sentiero vita (life trail), in the middle of the woods; the day was very hot but it was really pleasant there, the loop lasted about two hours, during which you have to allow for various technical stops such as the one for a snack and the nappy change. A visit to the archaeological excavations is worth a detour. (outing without pushchair) 6 another walk doable with a pushchair, which we were recommended by locals, also starts right near the playground; this time instead of turning right (sentiero vita) go straight on; it's a lovely walk that makes a loop; the only advice is to do it towards evening because there are no shaded spots

Outings from Molveno

7 Absolutely not to be missed is the cable-car outing; having reached the top we looked for the Malga Tovre (it wasn't easy); I recommend to everyone with small children that they do the whole climb with the lifts because the route to reach the malga is quite demanding with a child in your arms; once there we had a nice tour to see the animals and then Matteo started playing with some children; at the malga there are lots of games that the owners let you use provided they're put back afterwards (which seems the least you can do); we sat down to enjoy the sun with one eye on the little one and the other on the Dolomites. On the plateau there's also an adventure park, the forest park, but Matteo is still too small.

At lunchtime we went to another hut, highly recommended, the Baita Montanara, right at the top of the lifts; superb view and playground jectId,CTR61518it,curr,EUR,parentId,RGN10625it,season,at2,selectedEntry,catering/intern.html 8 walk along the lake, we got as far as the Baita Fortini where we ate, atore.php?IDRistoratore=250; on the way back you can visit the sawmill.

Outings from Spormaggiore

visit to the bear park.php

Other outings done with the little one outside the Paganella plateau

1 visit to the Melinda outlet; the child was offered apple juice and biscuits, also made of apple, delicious!!!! You'll find lots of Melinda products; we stocked up.

2 Lake Tovel, beautiful!!! absolutely not to be missed, see the photos state/tuenno/tuenno.htm; obviously we didn't manage to reach the malghe because the walking time was too demanding for the child, but we had a lovely walk along the lake, looked at the glacial erratics up close and did the walk of the old sawmills (doable with a pushchair)

3 Sanctuary of San Romedio

nteprima_primavera/s_romedio/sromedio.htm

4 Lake Smeraldo (Emerald Lake)

_interna.ashx?ID=2137 this outing too, not to be missed, also because from here another beautiful outing sets off along a canyon (we did it though, with such a small child it was a bit demanding; I advise you to make do with the first part, which by the way is also free)

5 Trento with the Cathedral and the Buonconsiglio castle

6 Merano and the fabulous gardens of Trauttmansdorff Castle; I recommend the visit towards evening or at any rate on not-too-hot days

7 Stenico Castle

8 Lake Tenno as far as the impressive Varone waterfalls 9 the Segonzano pyramids and the Val di Cembra 10 visit to the Rotary and Lavis cellars

One last bit of advice for anyone passing by Lake Garda: do the Gardesana, which is a panoramic road along Lake Garda; we stopped on the way back to visit the Vittoriale and on the way there at Arco, where a music festival was being held in those days