Apart Vinschgau, Val Venosta

Apart Vinschgau is in Laatsch (Laudes in Italian), a village of barns and old farmhouses in the upper Val Venosta, in the far west of South Tyrol. It is three kilometres to Glorenza, whose medieval wall still runs unbroken around fewer than a thousand people, and twenty minutes to the Swiss border.

This is one of the driest and sunniest valleys in the Alps. Apricots ripen here in July, apple rows run the length of the valley floor, and the winter light is startling: cold, dry and very bright, with the Ortler standing white at the head of the side valley to the south.

The apartment

Four people, one bedroom, two beds and one bathroom. Warm and compact rather than large, and finished in wood and white. The kitchen, the table and the sofa share one bright room, so cooking and sitting around afterwards happen in the same place instead of in separate ones. The bedroom has checked linen and windows onto the village roofs. The kitchen is set up for real cooking rather than reheating: oven, dishwasher, coffee machine, sharp knives, and enough pots to make dinner for four without improvising.

Winter

Watles, above the village, is a small, sunny family mountain with a toboggan run. For bigger days, Schöneben-Haideralm at the Reschensee and Sulden at the foot of the Ortler are both within about three quarters of an hour, and a single Südtirol Skiarena pass (formerly Ortler Skiarena) covers 18 ski areas, a few of them just across the border.

Cross-country tracks run along the valley floor, and when the Reschensee freezes hard the wind brings the snow-kiters out onto the ice around the church tower of Graun, still standing in the middle of the reservoir that drowned the village beneath it in 1950.

Summer

The Waalwege are close by: paths that follow the medieval irrigation channels along the valley sides, level along the water, shaded, with the channel running beside you. The Leitenwaal and Bergwaal loop near Schluderns, a few minutes away, makes an easy morning walk and a good first one with anyone who says they do not like walking.

Above Burgeis stands Marienberg, the highest Benedictine abbey in Europe, with Romanesque frescoes in its crypt that are worth the climb on their own. Up the valley the road crosses the Reschenpass into Austria; to the south it climbs the Stelvio and its forty-eight hairpins, which is why you will meet a great many cyclists here in July.

The Vinschgau cycle path runs about eighty kilometres from Lake Reschen down to Meran, mostly flat or gently downhill, and a seasonal bike shuttle or the valley train from Meran to Mals brings you back.

Good to know

• Address: Laudes 92
• Street parking in the village
• Wifi, bed linen and towels included
• Check-in from 16:00, check-out by 10:00
• No pets, unfortunately

In Laatsch itself a village shop, a bakery and two restaurants are all within five minutes' walk of the apartment, and for a pharmacy and bigger shops Mals is five minutes away by car. The Vinschgau is well set up for visitors, with marked trails, lifts, cycle paths and good public transport: from Mals the Vinschger Bahn reaches Meran in about an hour and a half, so a week here works without touching the car.