Piramidi di Terra di Longomoso

Every spire here wears a boulder on its head, and the boulder is the reason the spire exists: it takes the rain, while the clay all around it washes down the slope. That trade has been running for thousands of years, and what it has left behind counts among the best-preserved earth pyramids in Europe — pale, ridged columns standing in a raw gully. Then the view. The ground the path crosses opens out over the South Tyrolean countryside and the Alps behind it, so the walk in gives back as much as the formations do.

• No toilets, no water. Neither exists within walking distance of the columns, so fill the bottle and use the facilities before you set out.
• Winter light. Be at the pyramids before four: after that the sun is off the clay and photographs come out flat.
• An information board stands right at the columns, so the geology is explained on the spot rather than read up beforehand.

The last stretch is on foot whatever you arrive in. From Collalbo the way is signposted the whole distance and runs about 30 minutes, and that is the classic approach: cable car up from Bolzano, then the small railway across the plateau, then your legs. Drivers get off lighter — the car parks sit between 600 and 800 m back from the gully, and that is all the walking there is.

Best: while the sun is still on the columns — in winter that means being there before four. Avoid: the tail of a winter afternoon.

The clay takes all its colour from direct light. Once the sun goes off it, the columns turn grey and the shapes flatten out, so in winter the four o'clock mark is a deadline for the walk rather than for the arrival.