LUMEN - Museum of Mountain Photography

Half of it is on the walls and half is out of the window: the Dolomites stand across the glass, and inside, mountain photography runs from early prints to contemporary work. The museum is compact, and the interactive rooms are what stays with people — a mirror room, a 3D projection, a room built around a platform and an eye. Screens and hands-on displays sit between the framed prints, and the layout is loose enough to wander rather than follow. Photographers get the most out of it; the panorama brings up everyone else.

• Allow about an hour and a half — that is what one unhurried visit took, and the rooms reward a slow pass rather than a lap.
• Nothing parks at the door — cars stop down in the valley, and the last stretch up Kronplatz is by lift.
• Tickets at the bottom — they are sold at the foot of the ski lift, next to the big car park; buy before you ride up.
• Free toilets — at the building itself, with another set about 230 m away.

The last stretch is the lift. Cars go no further than the valley floor, and the way up Kronplatz is by lift to the top station, where the museum shares its building with a restaurant. Nothing drives to the door, and there is no road walk-in from the car parks below. In winter the same cabins carry skiers, so expect boards and boots on the ride up.

Better: a clear day, and the morning rather than the last hour before closing.

Avoid: days when the summit sits in cloud.

The photographs are only half the visit — the windows look out on the Dolomites, and in cloud the mountain gives nothing back. Weather on the summit turns faster than down in the valley, so the view you can see from Brunico is not a promise of the view from the top.