Rumo
Rumo is a scattered municipality (comune sparso) in the upper Val di Non, in Trentino, spread along the Pescara and Lavazzè stream...
Updated 18 July 2026
This season · July · Summer
What to do in Rumo now
The story
The story of Rumo
Rumo in the Upper Val di Non and Val di Bresimo
Rumo occupies a secluded corner of the upper Val di Non, in the northern part of the province of Trento, where the landscape already turns decisively mountainous. The municipality, classified as a comune sparso because it lacks a single unified main town, spreads over roughly 31 square kilometres between the Pescara stream and the Lavazzè stream, once called Rumès. It borders the municipality of Ultimo, in the province of Bolzano, to the north, a sign of how close the valley is, both geographically and historically, to the South Tyrolean world, as well as Proves, Bresimo, Cagnò, Revò and Livo. This hinge position between Trentino and Alto Adige, between the Val di Non and the Val d'Ultimo via the Passo Castrin, made Rumo for centuries a place of passage for shepherds, miners and traders rather than an isolated destination. Even today the municipal territory tells this double belonging, with a landscape of apple orchards in the lower part and woods and pastures climbing decisively toward the ridges of the Maddalene.
Castel Altaguardia and the History of the Valley
Just beyond Rumo's administrative border, on the slope descending toward Bresimo, stand the remains of Castel Altaguardia, the highest castle in Trentino, perched at 1,280 metres on Monte Pin. Its origins go back to a prehistoric settlement and a Roman lookout point, before the fortification itself arose, by the thirteenth century, belonging to the Livo family and then, after 1391, to the Counts Thun, who treated it more as a symbol of prestige than an actual residence. The stronghold was sacked during the peasant uprisings of 1407 and 1525 and deliberately set on fire in 1639, until its abandonment after 1780; today the restored ruins can be reached with a walk of about forty-five minutes along the road that climbs from Rumo, through Livo, toward Bresimo. Rumo, however, has its own castle too: the remains of the Castel Placeri tower, which preserves a fresco of the Madonna dated 1479. Both strongholds belong to the same historical season, when the prince-bishops of Trento and local noble families contended for a valley made valuable, between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, by the silver mines of Tregiovo, Rumo, Livo and Proves.
High-Altitude Apple Orchards and Agriculture
With mining activity long gone, Rumo's economy today rests mainly on mountain fruit-growing. Apple orchards climb the sunny slopes around the hamlets, within the area covered by the Mela Val di Non protected designation of origin, recognised in 2003 for varieties such as Golden Delicious, Red Delicious and Renetta Canada. Growing apples at these altitudes, between 900 and over 1,000 metres, requires attention to the microclimate and temperature swings, but it yields fruit with an intense flavour, prized for the slow ripening typical of the upper valley. It is mostly family-run farms, often active for generations, that tend the orchards alongside small plots grown for livestock forage, in a mixed agriculture that has allowed Rumo, like other municipalities of the upper Val di Non, to contain the depopulation that emptied many other alpine valleys during the twentieth century. Alongside the orchards, haymaking and grazing are still practised, a legacy of an agro-silvo-pastoral economy that combined valley-floor cultivation with the seasonal use of the higher pastures.
Forests, Alpine Pastures and Nature
Beyond the cultivated belt, the territory of Rumo is dominated by extensive coniferous and broadleaf woods that climb toward the high-altitude pastures of the Maddalene chain, on the border with the Val di Bresimo, well known for its numerous alpine huts dotting a landscape of streams, forests and high meadows. Within the municipal territory lies the historic Malga Lavazzé, a collectively owned alpine pasture that bears witness to forms of forest and grazing management predating modern agricultural organisations, and which still today, in summer, hosts livestock brought up to the high pastures. Following the trails that start from the hamlets, one reaches Passo Castrin, at 1,785 metres, a relatively young road pass linking the Val di Non and the Val d'Ultimo, across meadows in bloom with rhododendron and broad high-altitude grasslands, at the northern end of the Maddalene chain. Near Lago della Poinella, remains of flint-working dating to the Neolithic have been found, evidence of a human presence in these environments that predates the birth of the present-day municipality by millennia.
The Hamlets, Traditions and Experiences
Rumo has no real centre, but a cluster of hamlets, each with its own character: Marcena, the seat of the town hall, with the church of the Conversion of St Paul, which also gives its name to the patronal feast of 25 January; Lanza, with the church of San Vigilio; Mocenigo, where an underground structure for silver-working powered by hydraulic force has been identified, among the oldest of its kind in Europe; and the two Corte hamlets, Superiore and Inferiore, the latter with the church of Sant'Udalrico. Until 1946 the municipality also included the hamlet of Sinablana, with a German-speaking majority, which passed to the province of Bolzano under the De Gasperi-Gruber Agreement, an episode that tells how much Rumo has been, over the centuries, a meeting point between different linguistic worlds, of which a trace remains in the Ladin community, 11.7% of residents according to the 2021 census. Today the hamlets can be visited on foot or by bike, among little churches, orchards and views over the valley, while in winter the higher pastures toward Passo Castrin turn into terrain for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing, for an authentic and uncrowded mountain experience.
Not to be missed
- Hike to the ruins of Castel Altaguardia, the highest castle in Trentino, just beyond Rumo's border toward Bresimo
- Remains of the Castel Placeri tower in Rumo, with its 1479 fresco of the Madonna
- Climb to Passo Castrin, the gateway between the Val di Non and the Val d'Ultimo
- Stop at Malga Lavazzé and a walk among the high-altitude pastures of the Val di Bresimo
- Walk among the high-altitude Mela Val di Non apple orchards between the hamlets of Marcena, Mocenigo and Corte
To see
What to see in Rumo
Routes · Trovido Route
