A popular winter ski resort, this ancient mountain village has a strong cultural life distinct from tourism. It is a fascinating place simply to wander: justice was once dispensed from the canopied Kuerc’ in the main square and buildings such as the fine 15th–16th-century clock tower and collegiate church of San Gervasio and San Protasio (open daily), with its richly decorated interior, attest to the town’s wealth. The burghers of Bormio filled their coffers from purchase taxes – the town was a trading post between Venice and Switzerland – and the spa industry, which has thrived since medieval times.

Bormio’s thermal baths, the Bagni Vecchi (open daily, Sat & Sun till 10pm), lie 2 km (1 mile) north on the SS38, clearly signposted on the left and with parking outside. Visitors have enjoyed a session at these baths since Roman times, if not before. Pliny the Elder, Leonardo da Vinci and Giuseppe Garibaldi are among the great and the good to have wallowed in the nine hot springs here. The entrance fee allows visitors to stay all day, so leave enough time to enjoy the various indoor pools and cascades; the natural sauna in a cave 50 m (165 ft) inside the mountain that gets steadily hotter like Dante’s Inferno; the fragrant, pine-clad dry-heat room; and a beautiful open-air pool with a view of the mountain peaks.

Leave Bormio on the SS38 towards Tirano. At the hotel Baita dei Pini, turn left on the SP29 to Santa Caterina Valfurva. At Santa Caterina turn left into the Valle dei Forni, drive up until the road ends and park below the Rifugio-Albergo Ghiacciaio dei Forni.

A traditional way of life still goes on in these valleys at the base of the Ortles (Ortler) mountain range, with hay-making in the meadows and animals being led up to high pasture in summer beneath vast glaciers stretching from the Ghiacciaio dei Forni to Monte Cevedale. From the refuge car park, take the gently sloping track S555 up to Rifugio Pizzini (1½–2 hrs), a good place for lunch. Then pick up a short section of the Sentiero della Pace (Path of Peace), a long-distance path running the length of the World War I battlefront here, back to the car park (1½ hrs). Return to Santa Caterina and follow signs for the beautiful Passo di Gavia (2,621 m/8,600 ft) to see further reminders of the Great War.

Retrace steps to Bormio. Skirt town on SS38 and follow signs for Passo dello Stelvio (Stilfserjoch).

As the highest road pass in Italy, the Stelvio pass makes an awesome drive, although it is well within the average driver’s capabilities if taken slowly. Each hairpin bend is numbered – there are 40 from Bormio up to the pass and 48 back down to Prato – and the grandeur of the landscape increases with every turn. A knot of hotels and cable cars at the top (2,578 m/8,458 ft) serve summer ski slopes (May–Nov) on the glacier of “King Ortler”. For more views, head up to Cima Garibaldi, a 20-minute climb by foot from the pass.

Continue along the SS38 towards Spondigna. At Prato allo Stelvio, turn left and continue until you reach Glorenza (Glurns). Park outside the city walls in one of the four car parks.

Trip 3: Across the Roof of Italy | Passo dello Stelvio (Stilfserjoch)

For an idea of what cities looked like in medieval times, head for Glorenza, a tiny fortified town encircled by well-preserved walls, with three ancient gateways allowing traffic in and out. Its small-scale perfection and fewer than 900 inhabitants have led to it being known as “the smallest city in the Alps”. The cafés in the main square make a good pit stop.

Take SS41 to Sluderno and turn right to join the SS40/38 towards Merano. Follow signs for central Merano and use the car park at the roundabout by the Terme Merano.

Trip 3: Across the Roof of Italy | BORMIO

Trip 3: Across the Roof of Italy | BORMIO

Trip 3: Across the Roof of Italy | BORMIO

Tourists started flocking to Merano at the turn of the 19th century after Empress Elizabeth of Austria – known as Sissi – chose the town for her winter cure. A resort of fin-de-siècle hotels and riverside promenades evolved, with one of Sissi’s holiday castles now at the centre of the Giardini del Castel Trauttmansdorf (open Apr–Oct daily) . From central Merano, follow signs for Scena (Schenna) and the gardens and car park are signposted on the right. A surprise gem within the gardens is the imaginative Turiseum (as gardens), a hands-on museum with exhibits on tourism in the South Tyrol and the influences that helped shape it, from Romantic poets to Napoleon, the railways and the first mountaineers.

Leave Merano on the SS38 towards Bolzano. Take the Valle Sarentina (Sarntal) exit and continue to Piazza Gries. There, follow signs for Funivia S Genesio and Castel Roncolo. Cross the river to the car park.

Giants and dwarfs, the legendary lovers Tristan and Isolde and the world of chivalry all feature in the medieval frescoes of Castel Roncolo (open Tue–Sun, from spring to autumn), which are some of the finest of their kind. Not for nothing did director Pier Paolo Pasolini choose this 13th-century castle as a location for his film Decameron (1971), based on the medieval story cycle by Giovanni Boccaccio. In the Sala del Torneo, look out for the fresco of a fishing party: in the background, a noble is offering a fish to a lady, the medieval equivalent of an indecent proposal.

Follow the road signs for Bolzano (Bozen) centre. See “Visiting Bolzano”, opposite, for parking options.

A part of the Austrian Empire until the end of World War I, this distinctly Germanic market town is famous for its arcades and the mortal remains of a 5,000-year-old Ice Man.

A two-hour walking tour

This walk can be done anytime, though Sunday is best avoided as the shops tend to be closed. From any of the car parks, head towards the spire of the cathedral to reach the main square, Piazza Walther 1. Passing the monument to Walther von der Vogelweide (1170–1230), one of the greatest German poets of the Middle Ages, walk into Piazza del Grano 2. The lovely Casa della Pesa (1634) is on the northern side of this square. Head along Via Argentieri. A right turn onto Via Goethe will bring you to the busy food market 3 on Piazza Erbe. On one corner stands the fountain of Neptune 4 (1745), known locally as Gabelwirt (Innkeeper with a Fork). Walk past this and head up Via dei Francescani to the Chiesa dei Francescani 5 (open daily) dating back to the first half of the 14th century and with a superb Gothic wooden altar.

Backtrack a little to the top end of the market and take a left along Via Dr Streiter 6 which has a number of small design shops. Continue to Via dei Bottai, where a right turn comes to Piazza Municipio 7, lined with beautiful Rococo façades. Another right finds Portici 8, a Baroque porticoed shopping street.

Leave plenty of time for the 9 (closed Mon except Jul, Aug & Dec). The prize exhibit here is Ötzi, a Copper Age man, preserved in ice and discovered in 1991. Cross the River Talvera, taking a left at the arch on Piazza della Vittoria 0, commissioned by Mussolini in 1928. Cross over the new bridge downstream to the Museion q (open Tue–Sun), with a vast collection of avant-garde art on show.

Return to the centre via (closed Sun) with 15th-century frescoes in the cloisters and Giotto School frescoes in the chapel. Go back to Piazza Walther and the 13th-century Duomo e (open daily) with its steep, lozenge-pattern roof.

Leave via SS12 in Renon/Bolzano Nord direction. Follow signs to Chiusa and Bressanone. At Prato Isarco (Blumau) enter tunnel and keep on left to Fié allo Sciliar (Völs am Schlern) and Siusi (Seis). Park at cable car station.

Trip 3: Across the Roof of Italy | merano

Trip 3: Across the Roof of Italy | BOLZANO (BOZEN)

Trip 3: Across the Roof of Italy | MERANO

Trip 3: Across the Roof of Italy | Alpe di Siusi

This alpine plateau 2,000 m (6,500 ft) above sea level is closed to traffic between 9am and 5pm. Instead, ride the cable car from Siusi (Seis) to the peaceful summer pastures around the hamlet of Compaccio (Compatsch). Take the chair lift from Compaccio to Restaurant Bullaccia for a superb view of the Dolomite mountains: from flat-topped Sciliar (Schlern), emblem of the Dolomites, to the saw-toothed Sasso Lungo (Langkofel). Return to Compaccio on foot or by chair lift.

Retrace the route back to Bolzano on the SS12. Cross the Ponte Druso and keep going straight. Then take the SS42 for Appiano (Eppan) and the Strada del Vino (Weinstraße). Take minor road on left signposted Castello Firmiano (Sigmundskron). Continue to car park on the right. The castle is a 15-minute walk uphill on a path through woods.

Commanding the junction of two valleys, Firmiano has been fought over by forces north and south of the Alps for at least 1,000 years. The castle is now record-breaking climber Reinhold Messner’s flagship Mountain Museum (open 3rd Sun Mar–2nd Sun Nov; www.messner-mountain-museum.it) focusing on what mountains symbolize in global culture. A trail leads up through towers and battlements, passing an eclectic selection of art including a Tibetan prayer wheel, and an Inuit-style stone man.

Rejoin Strada del Vino (Weinstraße) and stop in Caldaro (Kaltern). Park in the sign-posted car park on Goldgasse.

The Wine Road stretches between Bolzano and Trento, winding through the idyllic Adige valley on quiet country roads. Well-signposted, there are enoteche (wine shops) and small producers offering tastings in almost every village, but the main focus is Caldaro (Kaltern). Wines have been cultivated on its south-facing slopes since before the Romans, and although Alto Adige is one of the smallest wine regions in all Italy, it produces more DOC wines than any other in the country. Around 80 of them can be sampled from 17 local producers at the wine bar and information point Punkt (closed Mon) on Caldaro’s main square. The village’s 16th-century Uberetsch architecture combines Gothic and southern Renaissance details.

Follow the Strada del Vino (Weinstraße) to Salorno and join A22 towards Trento/Verona at the S Michele/Mezzocorona junction. The exits are Trento Nord and Trento Sud; from there follow directions for Trento Centro. Free parking in Area ex Zuffo park-and-ride next to motorway exit (shuttle bus Mon–Sat) or pay at Garage Piazza Fierra, Autosilo Buonconsiglio or Centro Europa, all near the train station in the centre

Frescoed palaces line the main square of this town, at the centre of which is a playful 18th-century fountain of Neptune with his trident (the town’s Roman name was Tridentum). Trento is still best known as the venue for the Council of Trent (1545–63), a series of debates among Catholic church leaders over how best to respond to the Reformation in Protestant Europe. The main debates took place in the Duomo (open daily), which is built over a medieval crypt and early Christian basilica. Next door, the Palazzo Pretorio (closed Tue) – all fishtail battlements and flags – has good views over the historic centre. Also of interest is the 13th–15th-century Castello del Buonconsiglio (closed Mon).

Take the A22 motorway towards Verona and exit at Rovereto Nord. Follow the signs for the centre. Park on Via Manzoni; MART is a 5-min walk.

Opened in 2002, MART (Corso Bettini 43, closed Mon, open till 9pm Fri; www.mart.trento.it/) is recognized as one of Italy’s foremost galleries of modern art. It is particularly strong on American Pop Art and 1920s Futurist art by local artist Fortunato Depero, whose paintings and collages celebrating the machine age have developed an international reputation. Displays vary but expect to see works by Metaphysical artists Giorgio de Chirico and Giorgio Morandi, the Arte Povera artists and Pop Art by Warhol and Lichtenstein, as well as cutting-edge temporary exhibitions.

Trip 3: Across the Roof of Italy | Alpe di Siusi

Trip 3: Across the Roof of Italy | ALPE DI SIUSI

Trip 3: Across the Roof of Italy | Strada del Vino

Trip 3: The Majestic Ring of Kerry | Rovereto