Vipiteno Christmas Market

At the foot of the Torre delle Dodici, the clock tower that cuts the old town in two, the Vipiteno Christmas market (Sterzing) opens its chalets from 27 November 2026 to 6 January 2027. Vipiteno is the last Italian town before the Brenner Pass, at 950 metres above sea level and fifteen kilometres from the Austrian border, and its Christkindlmarkt is the closest to the pass of the five “original” markets of South Tyrol: some thirty stalls on Piazza Città, a carillon of 25 bells that rings twice a day from the tower, and an arcaded street where the burgher houses keep their painted façades. People come for the snow, frequent at this altitude, and for the atmosphere of a mountain town rather than a big city.

Piazza Città and the Torre delle Dodici

The old town of Vipiteno fits into one street, Via Città Nuova, lined with arcades and houses with oriel windows whose pastel façades rise to steep roofs. The Torre delle Dodici (Zwölferturm, the “tower of the Twelve”) closes it off in the middle: it is the gate between the new town and the old town, and everyone’s landmark. The Christmas market occupies Piazza Città, the square at the foot of the tower, with its wooden chalets packed around the tree.

The Vipiteno tourist cooperative, which organises the market, counts about 35 exhibitors. You find candles, wool and knitted items, handmade pastries, honey, cheese, carved wooden nativity figures and the obligatory hot drinks. The market carries the Green Event label of KlimaLand Alto Adige, with reusable tableware and regional products.

The size of the market is a choice. With its thirty or so stalls, Piazza Città can be covered in half an hour, and that is what the regulars like: you come back two or three times in the day, between a coffee under the arcades and a climb up the tower, without feeling you are missing something. The Advent programme (concerts, Saint Nicholas’s visit, children’s entertainment) is published by the tourist cooperative over the autumn; as of 22 September 2026, only the opening times, the carillon and the Krampus festival on 5 December were online.

The tower’s carillon is the market’s sound signature. Its 25 bells, cast by the Grassmayr foundry in Innsbruck, play every day at 10:30am and 4:30pm during Advent. The tower can be visited at weekends and on certain weekdays, for €4 per adult and €2 per child, which gives a bird’s-eye view of the chalets and of the Isarco valley up to the snow-capped peaks.

Opening times of the Vipiteno Christmas market in 2026

The stalls open every day from 10am to 7pm, from 28 November 2026 to 6 January 2027 (5pm to 7pm only on 27 November, opening day). The food chalets have longer hours: from 10am to 8:45pm Sunday to Thursday, and until 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays. So this is a market where you can dine outdoors at the weekend, something rare in South Tyrol, where the stalls generally close at 7pm.

• Market from 27 November 2026 to 6 January 2027, stalls open every day from 10am to 7pm from 28 November (5pm-7pm on the 27th).
• Food until 8:45pm from Sunday to Thursday and until 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays.
• Carillon of the Torre delle Dodici at 10:30am and 4:30pm every day.
• Free entry; climb up the tower €4 per adult, €2 per child.

On 27 November, opening day, the stalls only run from 5pm to 7pm. On 24 December, stalls and food close at 1pm; on 25 December, the cooperative announces reduced hours without detailing them, and 1 January is not specified. The food carries on until 10pm on 5 December, the evening of the Krampus festival, and until 1:30am on the night of 31 December.

Glühwein, canederli and specialities of the Isarco valley

Here you are in German-speaking country, and mulled wine is called Glühwein before it is called vin brulé. The food chalets serve the winter dishes of South Tyrol: goulash soup, canederli with speck, Strauben dusted with icing sugar, apple strudel, grilled sausages. The valley’s producers sell mountain cheese, honey and Christmas biscuits. To compare Tyrolean Glühwein, fuller-bodied and less sweet than its Alsatian cousins, we set out the recipes in an article on mulled wine and its variants.

The budget comes to around €10 to €25 per person for a meal at a chalet and a souvenir. Prices stay below those of Bolzano, in keeping with the town.

Getting to Vipiteno from France

Vipiteno is the last station before the Brenner on the Verona-Innsbruck line. The DB/ÖBB Railjets Munich-Innsbruck-Verona, which run every two hours, do not stop there: only regional trains serve the station, so get off at the Brenner or Bressanone and finish with a regional train. From Paris, the shortest route goes through Milan: as of 22 September 2026, three TGVs and two Frecciarossas link Paris and Milan every day via Turin and the Maurienne, in a little over 7 hours (5 hours 40 to Turin), on a line reopened in spring 2025 after the rockfall of August 2023; works in the Mont-Cenis tunnel interrupt these direct trains from 11 September to 9 October 2026, outside the market season. From Milan, you need to get to Verona then go up to Vipiteno via Bolzano and Bressanone. Innsbruck is the nearest airport, on the other side of the pass.

By car, Vipiteno is the first Italian exit on the A22 Brenner motorway coming from Austria, which makes it a natural stopover for those arriving via Munich or Switzerland. From France, the drive takes a long day from Paris through the Fréjus or Mont Blanc tunnel, the A4 to Verona and the A22 north to the Vipiteno exit. The station and the car parks are a few minutes’ walk from Piazza Città; the centre is pedestrianised.

Vipiteno, mountain town at the gates of the Brenner

Vipiteno has about 7,000 inhabitants and has always lived off the traffic over the pass: Via Città Nuova, with its merchants’ houses, tells of the days when the Brenner road made the fortune of innkeepers and hauliers. At 950 metres, snow lies in town for a good part of December, which gives the market its postcard setting without any superfluous light effects. The valley is also skiing and snowshoeing country, and many visitors combine a morning up high with the market in the afternoon.

From Vipiteno, the other South Tyrol markets follow one another by train. Bressanone Christmas market is the first stop heading south; at Fortezza, the Val Pusteria line branches off towards Brunico Christmas market; and Bolzano Christmas market, the oldest of the Italian markets, can be visited in a day. On the other side of the pass, Innsbruck Christmas market is the classic outing for the people of Vipiteno, and the reverse is true too: North Tyroleans come down in numbers on Advent Saturdays.