Bolzano scavenger hunt
Piazza Walther is Bolzano’s vibrant main square, famously centered around a statue of the medieval poet Walther von der Vogelweide and serving as the focal point for the city’s traditional Christmas market.
Renowned for its breathtaking Giotto-school frescoes and elegant Gothic architecture, the historic Chiesa dei Domenicani invites you to step into a tranquil sanctuary of medieval art and rich spiritual heritage.
Piazza delle Erbe is a vibrant, historic square in Bolzano that has served as a bustling marketplace for fruit, vegetables, and local delicacies since the 13th century. It is famously home to the Neptune Fountain, an 18th-century bronze landmark that stands amidst the surrounding colorful facades and traditional Alpine-style buildings.
Standing as an imposing marble arch with a complex history, the grand Victory Monument invites you to reflect on Bolzano's past while uncovering the intriguing stories housed within its subterranean exhibition.
The Bolzano Cathedral is a stunning Gothic and Romanesque masterpiece famous for its intricately patterned polychrome tiled roof and its elegant, open-work sandstone spire.
Bolzano scavenger hunt
Piazza Walther is Bolzano’s vibrant main square, famously centered around a statue of the medieval poet Walther von der Vogelweide and serving as the focal point for the city’s traditional Christmas market.
Renowned for its breathtaking Giotto-school frescoes and elegant Gothic architecture, the historic Chiesa dei Domenicani invites you to step into a tranquil sanctuary of medieval art and rich spiritual heritage.
Piazza delle Erbe is a vibrant, historic square in Bolzano that has served as a bustling marketplace for fruit, vegetables, and local delicacies since the 13th century. It is famously home to the Neptune Fountain, an 18th-century bronze landmark that stands amidst the surrounding colorful facades and traditional Alpine-style buildings.
Standing as an imposing marble arch with a complex history, the grand Victory Monument invites you to reflect on Bolzano's past while uncovering the intriguing stories housed within its subterranean exhibition.
The Bolzano Cathedral is a stunning Gothic and Romanesque masterpiece famous for its intricately patterned polychrome tiled roof and its elegant, open-work sandstone spire.

Bolzano Scavenger Hunt and Self-Guided Tour

Rated 4.68 out of 5 based on 40 customer ratings
(40 customer reviews)

Explore the city at your own pace with a self-guided experience.
Buy your ticket, download the app, and start instantly.

5 € - 11 €

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Make a day of itInteractive guides by World City Trail, delivered with your tickets.

What is a city guide?

Your own guide to Bolzano on your phone: hand-picked places, each with why to go, what to order and a practical tip.

  • Tick places off
  • Your own notes
  • One tap to Maps
  • Open now, near me
  • Works offline
  • Print it or save as PDF
See the guides, a short video and all the details →
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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Loved by thousands of travelers and locals

  • No time limit – use your ticket whenever you want
  • Secure checkout - Instant confirmation

Included: your personal Trail Map with every city you finish, the kilometres you walk and your flag collection. See an example →

Download on the App Store Get it on Google Play

Everything you need for a flexible self-guided city experience

Explore the city at your own pace

✔ Discover hidden gems & highlights
✔ Enjoy a flexible self-guided experience
✔ Explore freely with no schedule
✔ Perfect for couples, students, companies, friends & families

How your city experience works

✔ Instant ticket purchase
✔ Easy access via the World City Trail app
✔ Quick setup with your booking details
✔ Start anytime and explore freely
✔ Pause and resume anytime

Why travelers choose this tour

✔ Instant access after purchase
✔ Optional AI voice narration — listen instead of read
✔ Discover top attractions & food spots
✔ Customize your route anytime

Ötzi, Neptune's fork and a tiled roof: Bolzano as a game

The Bolzano scavenger hunt is a self-guided city game you play on your phone: you walk from landmark to landmark, solve a riddle at each one by looking closely at what is in front of you, and unlock the stories and legends behind it. The 10 stops sit on a loop of just 2.5 km, so the walking itself adds up to only about 33 minutes, and with riddles, stories and a coffee under the arcades the game fills around 2 hours from the moment you open it.

Highlights include the tiled roof of the cathedral, Piazza Walther, the arcades of Via dei Portici, the market on Piazza delle Erbe, the museum of Ötzi the Iceman and the Victory Monument. Bolzano's old town is compact and largely car-free, and the walk shows how Italian and Tyrolean traditions meet in one city at the foot of the Alps.

  • Durationabout 2 hours
  • Walkingabout 33 min · 2.5 km
  • Stops10
  • LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch

Two languages on every street sign, one riddle at every stop

A tiled roof, a marble poet, a market god

Each stop sets your team a riddle you crack by looking: the coloured glazed tiles on the cathedral roof, the marble poet in the middle of Piazza Walther, the trident that earned the Neptune on Piazza delle Erbe his nickname. Street names are signed in German and Italian, but the answers need neither language.

From the Iceman to the fascist arch

Each answer opens a story: how Bolzano grew rich as a market town on the Brenner route, why Walther von der Vogelweide's statue vanished in 1935 and came back in 1981, and what the exhibition beneath the Victory Monument says about the city's past. Listen instead of reading if you prefer: the audio narration tells each story between stops.

A short loop across the Talfer

The walking comes to about 33 minutes over 2.5 km, under the arcades of Via dei Portici, past the market and over the river Talfer to the Victory Monument and back. Much of the old town is car-free, and Google Maps leads you from one stop to the next.

A coffee under the arcades, a pear from the market

No clock runs against you, so stop for a coffee under the arcades or buy fruit at the stalls of Piazza delle Erbe, then go on later the same day or another time. Coming by train, you reach the cathedral on foot within minutes of leaving Bolzano station.

See the route and attractions →

How it works

  1. Book online Choose the number of players. Your booking reference arrives by email straight away.
  2. Get the app Download the World City Trail app from the App Store or Google Play and enter your booking reference.
  3. Play when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.

Who plays in the city where Italy meets Tyrol

A stopover on the way to the Dolomites

Around 2 hours is enough to see the cathedral, the arcades, the market and the Victory Monument, which suits a break on the Brenner route or an afternoon before heading up into the mountains. The riddles give the town its own chapter in an Alpine trip.

Children meeting the Iceman

Kids are fascinated by Ötzi, who lived about 5,300 years ago and turned up in a glacier in 1991, and they like hunting for Neptune's fork-like trident on the market square. The loop is short enough for young legs, and every team needs an adult.

Teams in a bilingual city

One team holds up to 5 people, each reading the riddles on their own phone, and a larger group splits into several teams that leave the cathedral a few minutes apart. Since each player sets their own language, colleagues who speak German, Italian or something else can share a team.

Good to know

  • Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
  • No entry tickets needed: everything happens outside the buildings. Going inside is optional and paid separately.
  • Family friendly; children must be accompanied by an adult.
  • Not suitable for wheelchair users and difficult with strollers.
  • Teams of up to 5 work best; bigger groups split into several teams, one ticket per player.
  • Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.

The route: from Bolzano Cathedral over the Talfer and back to the Dominican Church

10 stops · about 33 min walking · start: Bolzano Cathedral · finish: Dominican Church

The hunt starts at Bolzano Cathedral and crosses Piazza Walther into the old town, then follows Via dei Portici to Piazza delle Erbe. From there you walk to the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology and the City Museum, cross the river Talfer to the Victory Monument, come back past the Museion and finish at the Dominican Church. Every riddle is read from the street, the arcades or the square, so no museum door has to open for you, and the app is just as happy to begin at Piazza Walther or the Museion and line the stops up in whatever order suits your day.

Open the route map ↗

  1. Bolzano Cathedral

    1Bolzano CathedralStart

    The Cathedral of the Assumption is a Gothic church built mainly in the 14th and 15th centuries on the site of earlier churches. Its steep roof is covered with colourful glazed tiles, and its openwork spire, completed in the early 16th century, rises high above the old town.

  2. Piazza Walther

    2Piazza Walther

    Bolzano's main square, laid out in the early 19th century, is named after Walther von der Vogelweide, the medieval poet of courtly love, whose marble statue stands in the middle. The fascist authorities removed the statue in 1935, and it returned only in 1981. Each winter the square hosts the city's Christmas market.

    Read the full story →

  3. Bolzano Old Town

    3Bolzano Old Town

    Bolzano grew in the Middle Ages as a market town on the trade route between Italy and the German-speaking lands over the Brenner Pass. Its narrow lanes, arcades and painted house fronts mix Italian and Tyrolean influences, and street names are signed in both German and Italian.

    Read the full story →

  4. Via dei Portici

    4Via dei Portici

    Bolzano's main shopping street, called Laubengasse in German, was laid out in the late 12th century by the bishops of Trento. Its long arcades shelter narrow, deep merchant houses, and the Mercantile Palace, built in the early 18th century, was the seat of the city's trade court.

    Read the full story →

  5. Piazza delle Erbe

    5Piazza delle Erbe

    This square, called Obstplatz in German, has been home to a fruit and vegetable market for centuries. At its upper end stands an 18th-century fountain with a statue of Neptune, which locals nickname Gabelwirt because of the god's fork-like trident.

  6. South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology

    6South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology

    This museum is the home of Ötzi, the Iceman, who lived about 5,300 years ago and whose body was found in a glacier in the Ötztal Alps in 1991. He is kept in a cooled chamber, and the museum also shows his clothes, his copper axe and the rest of his equipment.

  7. Bolzano City Museum

    7Bolzano City Museum

    The City Museum is one of the oldest museums in South Tyrol, and its building near the river Talfer dates from the early 20th century. Its collections cover local art, history and folk culture.

  8. Victory Monument

    8Victory Monument

    The fascist regime built this marble triumphal arch between 1926 and 1928, designed by Marcello Piacentini, to celebrate Italy's victory in the First World War and the annexation of South Tyrol. Since 2014 a permanent exhibition beneath it explains its history and the city's past under fascism and Nazism.

  9. Museion

    9Museion

    Museion is Bolzano's museum of modern and contemporary art, housed since 2008 in a glass and metal cube by the river Talfer. At night its glass façades can turn into a large screen for video art.

  10. Dominican Church

    10Dominican ChurchFinish

    Dominican friars founded this church and monastery in the 13th century. Its Chapel of St John is decorated with 14th-century frescoes by painters of the school of Giotto, an early sign of Italian painting north of the Alps.

    Read the full story →

40 reviews for Bolzano Scavenger Hunt and Self-Guided Tour

  1. Rated 5 out of 5

    Laura– Germany –

    Collected on GetYourGuide

  2. Rated 5 out of 5

    Germany –

    Collected on GetYourGuide

    Haben viel spass

  3. Rated 5 out of 5

    Italy –

    Collected on GetYourGuide

    È stato molto interessante visitare la città attraverso enigmi e indovinelli. Un modo innovativo e diverso per conoscere dei piccoli dettagli che altrimenti sfuggirebbero! In squadre sarebbe sicuramente ancora più divertente!

  4. Rated 2 out of 5

    Anonymous (verified owner) –

    Nice idea but we had problems to use it. After a few steps we couln’t get on och get the next place.

  5. Rated 5 out of 5

    Claudia– Austria –

    Collected on GetYourGuide

  6. Rated 5 out of 5

    Kathrin– Germany –

    Collected on GetYourGuide

    Rund um gelungen. Eine tolle Erfahrung in einer uns noch fremden Stadt. Für Rätselfreunde könnten die Rätsel noch etwas kniffliger sein.

  7. Rated 5 out of 5

    Cornelia– Germany –

    Collected on GetYourGuide

  8. Rated 5 out of 5

    Australia –

    Collected on GetYourGuide

    Loved the ability to go at own pace. I stopped at a couple of the venues so took me Lo get. Very relaxed and informative way of seeing the place.

  9. Rated 5 out of 5

    Kathrin– Austria –

    Collected on GetYourGuide

    Rätsel waren sehr interessant und nicht zu anspruchsvoll. Man hat das Gefühl alle Sehenswürdigkeiten gesehen zu haben. Man hat genug Zeit und es war in der Gruppe wirklich sehr lustig. “Führe mich hin” hat auf dem verwendeten Gerät nicht immer optimal funktioniert.

  10. Rated 5 out of 5

    Italy –

    Collected on GetYourGuide

    Super activity , makes you engage with the attractions and learn many interesting things about the city

  11. Rated 5 out of 5

    Addison-Portugal –

    Collected on GetYourGuide

  12. Rated 3 out of 5

    Olivia-France –

    Collected on GetYourGuide

  13. Rated 5 out of 5

    Paisley-Ireland –

    Collected on GetYourGuide

  14. Rated 5 out of 5

    Sebastian-Ireland –

    Collected on GetYourGuide

  15. Rated 5 out of 5

    Charlotte-France –

    Collected on GetYourGuide

  16. Rated 5 out of 5

    Marie-Sweden –

    Collected on GetYourGuide

  17. Rated 5 out of 5

    Anna-Czech Republic –

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  18. Rated 4 out of 5

    Elijah-Germany –

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  19. Rated 4 out of 5

    Benjamin-Netherlands –

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  20. Rated 5 out of 5

    Christian-Finland –

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  22. Rated 5 out of 5

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  23. Rated 5 out of 5

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  24. Rated 5 out of 5

    Josiah-France –

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  25. Rated 5 out of 5

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  32. Rated 5 out of 5

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  37. Rated 5 out of 5

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  38. Rated 4 out of 5

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  40. Rated 5 out of 5

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Frequently asked questions

Can we fit the Bolzano hunt into a morning before heading for the mountains?

Easily: the whole game takes about 2 hours, so you can be on the road to the Dolomites by lunchtime. Only some 33 minutes of that is walking, over 2.5 km and 10 stops from the cathedral to the Dominican Church, and the rest is riddles, stories and a browse along the market stalls. Pause whenever you like and finish another day if the mountains call.

Do we start at the cathedral and finish near Piazza Walther?

Yes, it begins at the cathedral, the Gothic church with the coloured tiled roof beside Piazza Walther, and ends at the Dominican Church, only a few steps from that same square. If your hotel is across the Talfer, the app can start you at the Victory Monument and adjust the order around it.

Do we book a guided slot, or can we start any time?

Any time, because there is no guide involved. Each player has a ticket booked online, and the booking reference sent by email unlocks the game in the World City Trail app on whatever day and at whatever hour you pick. Everyone in the team then reads the riddles about the cathedral, the arcades and the Iceman on their own phone.

Do we have to pay to see Ötzi during the game?

No, the game never takes you inside, and the riddle at the archaeology museum is solved from outside. Seeing Ötzi himself in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology costs admission and is a separate visit, easy to add once the game is over.

Will children spot Ötzi and the Neptune fountain on the way?

Yes, both are on the route and usually top the list, Ötzi even seen from outside the museum where he is kept, and the patterned roof of the cathedral comes a close third. Each team needs an adult. The route is not suited to wheelchairs, and a pushchair will struggle in places.

Are the riddles in German and Italian, like the street signs?

Yes, in both, which suits a city signed in two languages, and English, French, Spanish and Dutch are offered as well. Who plays in which is decided player by player in the World City Trail app.

Does the Bolzano hunt work for a company outing in South Tyrol?

Yes. Get a ticket for everyone, divide into teams of no more than 5 and stagger their starts outside the cathedral. Because the finish at the Dominican Church lies right by Piazza Walther, the whole group can gather again on the main square at the end.

How should we prepare for Bolzano's summer heat or a rainy day?

Summer afternoons in the valley basin can get very hot, so carry water and something for the sun, while the arcades of Via dei Portici give shelter on a rainy day. Add comfortable shoes and a charged phone with mobile data, ideally backed up by a power bank.

Start beneath the cathedral's tiled roof

Tickets for every player are booked online, and the email with your booking reference unlocks the game. On the day that suits you, walk to Bolzano Cathedral and open the first riddle in the World City Trail app.

Book your tickets →

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