The code in the address gave me the first hint, but a quick study of the maps confirmed the suspicion: today I stepped out of South Tyrol into the neighboring province of Trento, if only by some 300 meters. Not that there was a border of any kind or even a sign. In winter this is one huge skiing area, including 500 kilometers of slopes and over 200 ski lifts. In summer, it’s a great place to hike, eat, drink and take photos. Making a picture without a ski lift in it is quite a challenge, however.
The word “Rifugio” simply means Hütte (or hut) in Italian, yet somehow makes it look much more remote and inaccessible. Nothing could be more wrong about Rifugio Salei, which is in fact a very fancy four-star hotel with indoor and outdoor swimming pools and toilet doors that slide when you move your hand over a sensor. Its restaurant is classy, featuring a panoramic terrace with a fantastic view and a menu of local dishes, of which I was, of course, only interested in one.
The unimaginatively named “Tyrolean Bacon/Cheese Platter” is exactly what the name says plus some salami. Replace salami with Kaminwurzerl, and you will get the typical South Tyrolean Marende, so a few steps out of South Tyrol did not make a big difference. The quality of the Speck was high, as I had expected, and the cheese, which already had quite a strong taste by itself, benefitted from two dips: a pink-colored horseradish-based one and a sweet and spicy red one.
I happened to have an online meeting at exactly the same time as the Brettljause was delivered to my table and as a result had to eat slower than usual. It may be thanks to that that I enjoyed the dish thoroughly. Taking tiny bits of this or that and eating them with different types of bread over more than half an hour, washing them down with an unhealthy amount of beer, while staring at the stunning mountain landscapes was, most likely, the only right way of approaching South Tyrolean food.
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