A journey into the taste of Eastern Trentino
Back to the Future
- 7 days
- March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October
- Taste
Are you looking for new flavours, preferably local ones, but also for a full cultural immersion? Do you think that you can fully experience a destination if you manage to wholeheartedly transform yourself into a member of the local community you are visiting? Do you think that your access door are the food and wine products of the territory?
When you encounter a new flavour that pleases you, even if you can’t name it, do you feel the vertigo of the time machine flying through space?
If yes, then you are a gastronaut, an explorer looking for taste experiences to fill with flavours, relationships and culture.
And if you have a passion for outdoor activities immersed in nature, perhaps near or in parks or protected areas, where cattle are grazing and agriculture is sustainable, then Trentino is your destination.
You probably already know some of the Trentino agri-food products, like speck, grappa, cheeses and wine. And, even if just by way of postcards, the Nature Parks and our Dolomites, World Heritage sites. Probably what you still don’t know is that the taste experiences that Trentino is able to offer you today are the result of research conducted by young local chefs, who set out to invent the new Trentino cuisine, one capable of blending destinies. This movement has a name: Trentino Food Tales.
Trentino is a vertical province. Mountains divide valleys, that are unique and powerful ecosystems. All the journeys you can experience in Trentino, from valleys to peaks, could keep you busy for a lifetime. To help you, we have created an itinerary to allow you to explore Eastern Trentino, along a route that starts from the city of Trento and ends at Passo Sella (2240 m a.s.l.). This journey will allow you to taste a new Trentino cuisine that draws its inspiration only from local and original products and, at the same time, to conquer the hearts of Trentino people by living experiences in contact with nature and local microcultures.
Are we ready to start?
Day 1: Trento city
Best wishes for the city
Just over two years ago, three brothers made a bet just behind the Roman walls of the city, in a building that smells of history. In their Restaurant Mattia, chef, Luca, sous chef, and Samuele Augurio share duties in the dining room, the cellar and the kitchen. Three souls just as the three elements - stone, wood and porcelain - that surround you as you make a stop, as the brothers like to say, to “enjoy your time”. Their study of ingredients aims to bring new, never-tasted-before flavours to their dishes, which are born of traditional recipes. From cooking to serving, their open kitchen leaves no room for secrets that cannot be shared.
Our advice is to celebrate the day with a walk on the Trento hill, the Doss Trento, a green space full of nature and more recent history, easily reachable from the Piedicastello neighborhood. You will walk on stones and paths and in galleries bearing witness to the protagonists of the last century’s wars, until you reach two monuments that celebrate the history of Italy: the Mausoleum of Cesare Battisti and the National Historical Museum of the Italian Alpini troops .
Day 2: Valle dei Mocheni
In the Enchanted Valley
Just 20 km from Trento, starting from Canezza di Pergine Valsugana head up the Valle dei Mocheni – Bersntol in the local language – a German-speaking linguistic island of medieval origin. It is a valley that has been described as enchanted because of its extraordinary beauty.
At the entrance to the valley, before starting the climb, don’t forget to stop at Fiorenzo Varesco’s Antica Osteria Morelli tavern. You will be able to enjoy a menu created entirely from local Trentino ingredients sourced from small producers, carefully selected with respect for the environment and biodiversity.
While in the valley you can walk all the way to the end of it, where at Palù del Fersina you will reach the Erdemolo mine. Like the entire area around it, through the centuries the valley was the mint of the empire, with intense mining activity that lasted until the second half of the 20th century. Here, you will learn about the mysteries and lifestyle of the German Canòpi mining experts.
Day 3: Piné plateau
The instinct of passion
Coming down from the valley towards Canezza, along Provincial Road 83, across a scenery that takes your breath away, you reach the Pinè Plateau. Once in Baselga, stop by chef Marco Bortolotti’s La Vecchia Segheria. It is was a Venetian sawmill until the first half of the 20th century; today, it houses Marco’s restaurant. Marco Bortolotti is a creative and extrovert chef who tries to transfer to his dishes the emotions he gathers from the locals. His first memory? His grandmother cooking in the wood stove, with him playing with her apron. His most distinctive creation: venison tartare with rennet apple, jam, gorgonzola and wild watercress.
Continuing on the Provincial Road, you encounter two twin Blue Flag bathing lakes, Lake Serraia and Lake Piazze. They are ideal places to relax surrounded by meadows or to engage in water sports. And if you prefer a walk, the Agrigelateria, on Lake Serraia, offers delicious snacks for young and not-so-young patrons.
Day 4: Val di Cembra
A break in the cellar
As you head up towards Valle di Cembra, with its audacious terraced vineyards, make a stop at the Zanotelli Agricultural Company, in the centre of the village of Cembra. Here Orietta, her brothers and a cousin will welcome you to their cellars, where the family began to produce wine as early as 1860. Müller Thurgau, Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Kerner, Riesling, Manzoni Bianco, Pinot Nero, Schiava, Lagrein, and a white Passito, and, last but not least, a Trento DOC label in Blanc de Blanc and Rosé versions.
Day 5: Magnificent Community of Fiemme
Around the world with a single dish
From Cembra, we continue to climb towards Cavalese, finally reaching the Magnificent Community of Fiemme. Here, in the village of Varena, chef Sara Bertocchi will welcome you to her kingdom, Restaurant Frosch. Her love affair with cooking was fueled by daily contacts with Milan-based painters and artists for whom her family prepared paint colours. Local products, flowers and wild herbs colour her dishes, that Sara likes to spruce up with ingredients from faraway places, such as lobsters from Maine or raw shrimp from Mazara, in Sicily. And what about tradition? Every month a person from the village comes to share with her and her team a typical local recipe, in order to preserve the knowledge and flavors from the past.
A stop for the day? The Predazzo Bio Lake! A regenerating and refreshing stop on the meadows of a crystal clear water purified by aquatic plants, where the depth does not exceed 1.50 metres.
Day 6: Val di Fassa
The gourmet farm
From the Magnificent Community to the Ladin world of Val di Fassa, the northernmost valley in Trentino, on the eastern side of the province of Trento. Take a day to experience what Agritur El Mas of the Croce family has to offer and, if you can, rent a bike to travel on the easy Dolomites Bicycle Trail, that runs along the Avisio stream and allows you to admire all the lights of the UNESCO World Heritage mountains.
Young chef Stefano is a promise. At the age of 24, he won the 2022 Michelin Green Star for gastronomy and sustainability. In his kingdom, the commitment to environmental education, the stable, the dairy, the on-site meat processing, the vegetable garden and the educational farm have allowed honouring and reinterpreting the Ladin culinary tradition. The cheeses are a treat you cannot miss!
Day 7: Passo Sella
The voice of the Moon
Finally, our journey ends above Canazei, at Passo Sella, in the Carlo Valentini Hut, reachable by car all year round and the starting point for all the Sella Group itineraries. In this historic hut, considered a landmark of sorts for hikers and skiers, the kitchen is in the hands of Gaetano Bonanno, a big-eyed chef who cooks as his mood dictates him! And the best dishes, needless to say, are those prepared when he is cheerful. His innovative cuisine is well rooted in his birth region. He is especially proud of his venison tartare scented with mountain pine essence and raspberries. The inspiration for this dish came to him while collecting herbs in the woods. A deer walked by him at that time: its passage exploded into the air the scents he tried to reproduce in the dish.
What excursion do we recommend? The Viel del Pan trail, unforgettable to admire the majesty of Marmolada, the queen of the Dolomites!
