The holiday area Gitschberg/Jochtal in South Tyrol in the Italian Alps offers a particularly great number of mountain lodges and huts. Also in winter it is worth dropping by for a Marende, the rich and hearty Tyrolean version of the British afternoon tea. Around Rio di Pusteria and Valles you are spoilt for choice with the variety of lodges and huts.

There are plenty of rustic ski huts at the slope edges where you can practice the traditional Einkehrschwung, a pit-stop at a mountain inn popular with locals and tourists alike.
You best start it with some mulled wine or a Heiße Hexe (hot hag), a traditional apres ski drink in South Tyrol. Particularly pleasant: enjoying the warm winter sun rays on a cosy sun terrace. In the Alpine hamlet Fane Alm near Vals you can find a number of Alpine huts offering top-notch foods for hikers.
In our huts and lodges South Tyrolean specialties taste better than anywhere else: Kasnocken (cheese dumplings), Kaiserschmarrn (sugared pancake with raisins served with a blob of typical lingonberry jam), Leberknödel (liver dumplings) and topfen strudel (sweet strudel filled with curd cheese) are particularly delicious after having spent time in the fresh mountain air.