The Ritten plateau, calm and leafy in summer, is a delight to the middle-aged and elderly. In winter it has cross-country ski trails. Until 1966 the brown-and-white cars of the Rittenerbahn cog and pinion railway went grinding and clattering all the way from Bolzano. Now it is reduced to a section between Oberbozen and Klobenstein. To cross the plateau, leave your car in the valley, take the cableway and either follow well defined hiking paths or ride the rack railway, facing north for fantastic views of the principal Dolomite ranges. On your route is the phenomenon of the Earthen Pyramids (as at Segonzano), a group of sandstone towers 20-30 m high, conical with flat stone slabs perched on top. They look artificial but are not. They result from the erosion of a hill, the rocky slabs having prevented the soil under them from being washed away. If, as occasionally happens, a slab slips off, that is the end of the Earthen Pyramid.