Bad weather in Italy: Huge boulders fall on road. Holidaymakers in South Tyrol: Fiat drivers are in luck

Storms in Italy continue to cause mudslides and rockslides: at midnight on Sunday in South Tyrol Wenchgau, several boulders tumbled onto a main road. Motorists were incredibly lucky.

Laces – After months of drought, it rains non-stop across Italy. Also in South Tyrol. There, near Latch, the rain washed away several tons of rock from a steep slope. Huge boulders thundered on the main road (SS 38) through Vinschgau. This route runs from the Reschen Pass (the border with Austria) to Meran and on to Bolzano and is a popular alternative for holidaymakers who want to avoid the Brenner Pass on their way to Italy.

Südtiroler Straße is very popular with holidaymakers

At around 4 am on Sunday, the rockslide broke about 50 meters down the northern rocky face of the valley. Multi-ton chunks thundered through the forest, mowing down dozens of trees before smashing down a farm path and through an apple orchard.

The largest boulder – the size of a garage – crashed into the middle of the road. Another large boulder remained lying at the edge of the road, and other small boulders were scattered over the slope above, in the farmhouse and on the slope upwards. The truck driver managed to brake in time and stopped.

South Tyrol: After the storms in Italy, rocks thundered halfway through

Then a Fiat 500 with four passengers came from the direction of Miran. “The driver overtook the truck and then wanted to drive through the rocks,” Latch fire brigade chief Werner Lenser told our editorial team. Then the car got stuck on the side of the road in a ditch caused by falling rocks.

The four passengers quickly disembarked and reached safety. More rocks thundering down the road cannot be ruled out. “Anyway, the passengers were very lucky,” Lenser continued. “A few moments ago the whole car could have been hit by rocks.” Not the first landslide in South Tyrol in recent weeks. One rock tumbled onto the balcony of a kindergarten, and another slammed into the street in Aehrenthal.And Soon after the cars passed by the spot, as seen in the video.

Pass for travelers to South Tyrol: The road from Reschen Pass to Meran was initially closed

The busy main road through Vinschgau is now closed for the time being, and traffic is directed through the town of Latsch on the other bank of the Adige. “We have to remove the rocks and then the slope above needs to be checked and secured, which will certainly take until the day of Pentecost,” Lenser says.

Vacationers must therefore see if the road is free again if they want to drive to Merano and beyond via the Reschen Pass. The city of laces is probably a traffic bottleneck at the moment. Already on Sunday there were traffic jams. Read here what else vacationers should know in light of the storm. Meanwhile, even the State Department has issued travel advisories for Italy.