Guggenbergerhof, Jenesien

When the summer heat drives locals and visitors from the hot valley to cooler altitudes, the Meran 2000 hiking area is often their first port of call

Aromatic wild and garden herbs, fresh fruit, organic free-range eggs, cheese, quality meat, natural honey: there is probably no other place where the variety of local products - and the density of local producers - is greater than in Vöran.

Between the peaks of Ifinger and Plattinger, at the foot of the Oswaldscharte (gap of S. Oswald), an inconspicuous church with a small tower stands at 1,185 m above sea level on a small flat alpine pasture. The building, which interestingly does not have any hiking trail leading directly past or to it, nevertheless experiences great crowds once a year. Every year on 5 August, the inhabitants of the communities of Hafling and Schenna make a pilgrimage to that small church Meran 2000 to ask Saint Oswald (in Hafling "Oaswold") for protection from storms.