Somewhere between Sasbachwalden and Kappelrodeck on the Ortenauer Weinpfad, a sense of enchantment steals over the landscape. The early morning fog, sometimes all-enshrouding, sometimes like wisps of steam from simmering cauldrons, rises from still pools, or solitary copses, magically parting of its own accord to reveal a landscape seemingly suspended in a long-ago time. Such is this region of the Black Forest.
Trail Name: Ortenauer Weinpfad (OWP)
Trail Type: Long distance; almost exclusively paved or hard-packed earth, well maintained, very well-marked.
Length: Total: 101 kilometers/ 62.75 miles
Convenient to: Baden-Baden (north) and Offenburg (south), Germany
Marking: Blue grapes on a red diamond on a white background
Imagine a Christmas tree lot on a crisp day in December. Then recall the wonderful smell of pine and pitch, with needles crunching underfoot, releasing even more fragrance as you walk along, searching for that perfect Christmas tree, and you have a fair idea of the first leg of the Ortenauer Weinpfad in the magical Black Forest.
Trail Name: Ortenauer Weinpfad
Trail Type: Long distance; almost exclusively paved or hard-packed earth, well maintained, mostly very well-marked, (but bring a map anyway).
Length:
Total: 101 kilometers/ 62.75 miles
Northern half: approximately 51 kilometers/31.7 miles
Convenient to: Baden-Baden and Offenburg, Germany
Marking: Blue grapes on a red diamond on a white background
The love of wine knows no boundaries, and vines know no political borders. Vintners on both sides of the French-German border in this northeastern-most corner of Alsace tend the land together, owning, or working, parcels on both sides, producing wines, and sharing a growing passion for quality wines. A wine-themed circuit hike here, developed by French and German regional and local tourism authorities, likewise shows a spirit of cooperation. This has produced excellent results, both in wine education, and in an easy, family-friendly hike through an historic French town, a quaint German village, and of course, vineyards.
This hike crosses the border between France and Germany twice. But before there was a border, there were vines. These vineyards, and many others both north and south of the border, belonged to the abbey in Wissembourg, in Alsace. And even though the abbey and the borders (for all practical purposes) have gone, the vines remain. Yet another reminder of the crucial, regional role abbeys and monasteries played in reviving viticulture in these areas after the fall of the Roman Empire.
Trail Name: Circuit Viticole Transfrontalier (French) / Grenzuberschreitender Rundweg durch die Weinberge (German)
Trail Type: Short distance circuit; almost exclusively paved, well maintained, extremely well marked.
Length: total: 7 kilometers/ 4.3 miles
Convenient to: Karlsruhe and Landau, Germany
Marking: Red circle on white rectangular background
Continue reading Circuit Viticole Transfrontalier: Trail in a Nutshell
A cool and misty delight, is how I will remember this trail. Although in Italy, this trail had the weather, but more importantly, the care for its trails that reminded me of trails in Germany: neat, maintained, well-marked, and thoughtfully laid out to begin with, to include lots of rest areas, diverse views, and pubs and cafes along the way.
Trail Name: Wein.weg
Trail Type: Short distance circuit; almost exclusively paved, well maintained, and well-marked albeit with successively different path numbers.
Length: Approximately 9.5 kilometers / 5.9 miles
Convenient to: Bozen/Bolzano, Italy
Marking: Red and white markings with black numbers for paths 12, 12a, and 3 (Seerundweg)
The Ring of the Black Rooster
At long last: I found a designated hiking trail in the Chianti region that focused on an area of vineyards and wines outside Castellina in Chianti in the Chianti Classico wine district! Communal or regional trails for wine-lovers are seemingly rare in this corner of Tuscany. So when online research finally produced information about the Anello del Gallo Nero trail, I was eager to hike it, especially as it was named after the Chianti Classico trademark, the black rooster.
A lovely characteristic of the Chianti landscape is its variety. Agriculture here is intensive, not invasive, done on a small scale. Small olive groves are tucked between rows of vines. Fields of grain, small patches of amber in the distance, are scattered throughout. The forests play an integral role as well, providing a wide range of resources from firewood to wild boar, berries, and chestnuts. This manner of resource exploitation has left lots of remote, delightfully hidden corners to explore. Therefore, this hike offered varied landscapes to savor, experience and photograph.
Trail Name: Anello del Gallo Nero (AKA: Vino e Architettura)
Trail Type: Medium distance hiking circuit; almost exclusively gravel, or uneven surface, not maintained, and not marked.
Length: total: 13 kilometers/ 8 miles
Convenient to: Castellina in Chianti, Italy
Marking: None!
