What could be better than sitting around the table with family or friends and enjoying good food? But where should we go when we don't want to cook ourselves and would rather be pampered? We all have our own personal favorite restaurant, but it's not easy to choose one... In Ritten, we have everything from down-to-earth, traditional cuisine to excellent gourmet cuisine that will make food lovers' hearts beat faster. We probably don't need to mention how important gastronomy is for tourism. In our blog, we would like to introduce you to various inns and restaurants and inspire you with culinary delights. We begin this culinary journey with one of the oldest inns in South Tyrol. The favorite restaurant of Silvrid and her husband Kurt Eccel from Oberbozen – Maria Himmelfahrt.

Silvrid often and gladly eats out on the Ritten. She probably knows almost all Buschenschänke, inns, and restaurants on the Ritten and enjoys being a guest in a simple place just as much as savoring the food in a gourmet restaurant. Silvrid lists several places where she goes out to dinner with her husband in the evening: Restaurant Pirbamer, Gasthof Signaterhof, Restaurant Am Gleis, Restaurant Bemelmans Post, Gasthaus Zunerhof, Gasthaus Pfoshof, Moarhof, Gloriette, Restaurant 1908 at Parkhotel Holzner, … They have also already enjoyed the food at the new Hofschänke Pippo’s Mountain Lodge and rave about Rosi’s Wiener Schnitzels at Berggasthof Unterhorn. These are just a few examples of the great variety of gastronomy on the Ritten.

One place Silvrid & Kurt Eccel keep returning to is – as already mentioned – one of the oldest inns in South Tyrol: Gasthof Schwaiger in Lengstein. What keeps drawing them back? It all starts with “childhood memories.” Silvrid once told her husband that as a child she often hiked with her parents from Klobenstein to Lengstein, where they ate at Gasthof Schwaiger. Her husband had exactly the same childhood memories, so after a long time they went back “following the traces of their childhood” to Lengstein (not hiking like kids anymore) and stopped at Gasthof Schwaiger.

Silvrid is still enthusiastic today. “We immediately liked this historic house, and at the latest when the Frittatensuppe was served from bowls just like from grandma’s times, we fell in love with this inn and its kitchen.” Silvrid also raves about the Wiener schnitzels, while her husband is taken by the apricot dumplings (Marillenknödel). They appreciate the natural hospitality of the Mayr family.

When Silvrid Eccel drives through Lengstein to the Eisack valley, she very much likes to stop by the Gasthof Schwaiger’s shop, a so-called “Tante Emma Laden” (small village grocery) like the old days. Gasthof Schwaiger also runs its own agricultural business.

While the women (mother Maria Theresia and wife Marialuise) rule the kitchen, Markus Mayr or his father Max impressively tell guests the house’s story:
“Located directly on the Kaiserweg, our house has in its thousand-year history seen many pilgrims, crusaders, and even kings with their retinues pass by. Lengstein was then a village with only a handful of houses but is documented to have the oldest historically recorded market rights in all of Tyrol, granted by Emperor Barbarossa in 1177. When the court seat was still at Stein Castle, the prison was said to have been located in Gasthof Schwaiger. Markus Mayr jokingly suggests that probably only ‘minor criminals’ were held in this prison.”

On Gasthof Schwaiger’s website anyone can read what is very important to Markus Mayr and his family:
The philosophy of our house is to create for guests an atmosphere of comfort and satisfaction and to awaken a sensitivity for the simple and important things in life. Being innkeepers and farmers for generations, the owners have experienced all the ups and downs. They have made it their mission to preserve Gasthof Schwaiger and carefully adapt it to the current demands of tourism without irreparably destroying the character of a listed historic building or sacrificing it to the fleeting trends of the moment. A house that has seen much, can tell many stories, and today, just as in the past, pampers its guests with down-to-earth, regional cuisine.