Geislerkino

Twenty minutes of woodland, then a gravel track, and the trees give out onto a meadow with a hut standing on it. The Geisler group fills the view across the grass, rock rising like a wall, and the seating is arranged to face it — people stretch out and take the peaks in the way they would look at a painting. The meadow is large, so there is room to scatter: shade under the trees, flat rocks, grass enough for a picnic before the walk back down. The hut serves meals, and after a climb that goes uphill the whole way, that matters more than it sounds.

• The signed times run optimistic. One party needed three hours up from St. Magdalena where the sign said two, stopping often on the steep sections.
• The hut works on shared tables. Find a free spot, sit down with whoever is already there, ask for the menu and order.
• The gravel track is shared with cyclists — one visitor met bikes and almost nobody else on the way up.
• Italian signs and maps call the spot Cinema delle Odle.

The last stretch is walked, all of it. Cars stop at the Zans car park down in the valley and the trails climb from there — route 36 onto 34 is one line up, and paths from St. Magdalena come in from the other side. The first part is well waymarked through trees; after about twenty minutes it joins a gravel road that keeps climbing, gently by comparison. Reckon on an hour and a half to two hours up, longer with photo stops, and the same path back down.

Better: autumn, and a start early enough to be back down in daylight. One party climbing from St. Magdalena in late October met almost nobody in three hours on the path.

Avoid: setting off late in the day. Whatever you climb has to be walked back down the same way, and the descent takes its own share of the afternoon.