Before leaving, take off your shoes
The best barefoot experiences for the coming summer
Our feet weren’t made to be tied up in shoes all day. They should be free to feel and follow the contours of the ground. Of course, shoes are useful when it comes to protecting your feet against the cold and more jagged terrains but how about the pleasure of dipping your toes in a cool stream after a long walk in the mountains and then maybe wander barefoot along its grassy banks.
Barefoot walking isn’t only good for the mind, but is especially beneficial to your physical well-being. First of all, it helps you to correct your posture as walking barefoot allows for a complete and balanced contact between the ground and the soles of your feet whereas with shoes your weight tends to be concentrated on the heels. Secondly, barefoot walking helps circulation and reawakens the muscles in your feet.
The best way to start is, literally, one step at a time and to choose the right terrain. Here in Trentino, for example, there are many ways to try barefoot walking in the company of experts, who will be glad introduce you to the pleasures of this activity, or you can choose from specific itineraries that cover different natural terrains. Here are some unique proposals to be experienced barefoot!
Open-air Kneipp therapy in the Val di Rabbi
Your first barefoot walk will take you to the splendid mountains of the Val di Rabbi and the reinvigorating benefits of hydrotherapy. Here, in the Stelvio National Park, you’ll find the first open-air Kneipp centre in Trentino. Flowerbeds, wooden loungers, a small lake and the fresh waters of the Rio Valorz stream where you can dip your feet and feel the silent energy of the mountains.
In the woods of Val di Fiemme
A walk to take barefoot and with your eyes closed, over pebbles, bark, wet grass… sometimes with squirrels or roe deer for company. You can find this magical place at Bellamonte, among the forests of Val di Fiemme. The best way to reconnect with nature and restore your body and mind.
Barefoot walking in the Alpe Cimbra mountains
Have you kicked off your hiking boots? Great, now take a walk across the mountain meadows, dip your feet in a stream and let them dry under the summer sun. This ancestral experience that belongs to the DNA of human beings, awaits you among the Alpe Cimbra mountains.
At the feet of the Brenta Dolomites
The silence of the woods, broken only by the bubbling of a mountain stream. The perfect place to stop, remove your boots and continue barefoot. In the Val Nambrone, not far from Madonna di Campiglio, you can follow trail no. 5 of the Dolimiti Natural Wellness network, dedicated to barefoot walking with its grassy terrain and natural Kneipp route along the stream bed.
