The European Chronicles 2024.14 - The Goldene Rose Experience

July 16, 2024

The European Chronicles 2024.14 - The Goldene Rose Experience

Sometimes, It IS The Destination

Meet Alexander, the sommelier at the Goldene Rose, conducting our "taste around Italy" wine class, along with two other couples, one from England, Skip and Andy, the other from Abu Dhabi, Caroline and David. To say this was "fun" is a complete understatement. Not only was the class interesting and informative, but the post-class dinner and wine "education" master class lasted until 2 am. Many good bottles, along with wide-ranging discussion, created a very memorable evening. Sleeping in the following morning was a requirement, and the sauna helped sweat out the alcohol. 😂

The sauna area, pulled from the hotel website. The building is the panorama sauna, it looks out into the mountains. Very effective, and necessary, detox...

The wine cellar, in the basement of the old monastery; Alexander gave us a tour.

Some tasting highlights:

Krisanne loved this white

I loved this Sicilian red from Mt. Etna

And, surprisingly, we both liked this dessert wine, which is not something either of us expected.

And at dinner, the perfect conversation lubricant... 😂

I have to spend some time talking about the food at the Goldene Rose. In a word: spectacular. Krisanne and I both think this is the best food we've ever had...a gourmet experience every day. Wonderful, fresh, local, perfectly prepared and served in beautiful spaces, indoors and out, with outside always being the preferred option.

At all the hotels we usually choose what's known as "half-board," breakfast and dinner. Especially on Mia, it makes it very easy to always know you have good food available where you're staying. But at all these small, family-run for generations, "wellness" hotels, the food is NOTHING like what we get at hotel restaurants in the states...think of your favorite high-end special occasion restaurant, put it in the middle of a spa hotel, then wrap it with mountains, water and stunning views. All for not a lot more...it is a true value. Highly recommended.

The core idea behind our five destination hotels was to mix great riding, great hiking and a great hotel experience all together. The Goldene Rose excels at that; I've already posted the Stelvio and Umbrail pass ride...and there are numerous hiking options out the hotel front door. In fact, Caroline and David found the Goldene Rose the same way Krisanne did, through Inntravel.

We did a beautiful walk around the lake.

Over this very, very cool suspension bridge.

Relive 'Lake hike'

That night's reward. Lagrein is a medium body local red that is produced in limited quantity; very little makes it out of the area. Alexander claims that the local Alto Adige restaurants buy up 60% of the total production.

Worth the walk... 😂

Because of the monastery town origins, I assume, there are church bells...they start at 6 am, 4 bells on the hour, followed by clangs equal to the specific hour, followed by one clang on the 15, two on the 30, three on the 45, four at the top of the hour...repeat until 10 pm. Except at 7 am, all hell breaks loose (can I use that term to describe church bells?) with who knows how many clangs, something like 40+. No idea why...

You get used to it. 😂

The Pillion POV