Ritten

The Ritten/Renon is a ridge and one of the foothills of the Sarntal Alps (if you can call a mountain over 2000 metres high a "foothill") between the deeply-carved valleys of the river Eisack to the east, the river Talfer to the west and the Bolzano basin to the south.

From a geological perspective the whole area forms part of the enormous Bolzano porphyry slab. The sub-Mediterranean climate which characterises the lower south-facing mountainside enables wine-growers to produce superb wines from vineyards as high as 1000 metres altitude, and sweet chestnuts also mature at these heights.

Mediterranean oak and European ash trees are typical of the vegetation. Higher up expansive meadows and forests with an amazing richness of tree varieties dominate the landscape, while even higher the scenery becomes distinctly alpine in character with the "Rittner Horn" (2260 m) as the highest point, towering above expanses of alpine pastureland.