What You'll Find in This Post
Is a Dolomites cattle drive on your September shortlist, and you cannot work out which village actually holds one on a day you will be there? I got you. The answer for 2026 is Moena, Sunday 20 September, with a second parade in Soraga the day before.
The honest trade-off first. The parade is short. Last year it stepped off at 11:45 a.m., and the herds were through the center before lunch. Drive two hours for the parade alone, and you will feel cheated. Come for the whole day and treat it as the centerpiece of a three-day cheese festival, and it is one of the best value days in the Dolomites, with almost all of it free.
One naming thing that trips people up. In German-speaking South Tyrol, this is the Almabtrieb. In Ladin-speaking Val di Fassa, where Moena sits, it is the Desmontegada. Search only “Almabtrieb,” and you will miss Moena entirely.
Now, personally? Watching cows in beautiful headdresses parade through small Dolomites towns is one of my favorite things on earth. I am aware of how that sounds. And in Moena, it happens during a festival built entirely around cheese, so, oh, hell yes.
This post pairs well with
- Almabtrieb Seiser Alm 2026: How to See the Cattle Drive in Compatsch
- Dolomites Travel Guide: How to Plan a Trip to Italy’s Most Beautiful Region
- Dobbiaco Krampus Run: How To Attend the LARGEST Krampus Run in The Dolomites
In a Rush? My Top 3 Picks for Festival Weekend
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Moena books out for the festival. Lock a room the moment the programme drops in August.
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A car makes the Carezza side trip possible. Public transport does not, not on a Sunday.
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The 2026 programme lives online only. You will be checking it from the car park.
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I went in September 2025. You hear the bells long before you see anything, a loose clanging that bounces off the buildings and gets louder. Then the cows come through in flower crowns, ribbons tied to their horns, farmers walking beside them looking quietly pleased with themselves. Children along the barriers ring their own little bells back. When it was over, I ate a plate of polenta smothered in Puzzone, and had the chance to try local beers from breweries around the Dolomites.
What Is the Almabtrieb (Desmontegada) in Moena?
It is the closing act of the Puzzone di Moena PDO Festival, a three-day celebration of the local washed-rind cheese that the people of Moena originally called Spretz Tzaorì. Puzzone translates, with real affection, to “the stinky one,” and y’all, it’s fucking stinky, but GOOOOD!
The Desmontegada is the return of the herds from the high summer pastures. Cows, and depending on the year, sheep, horses, and goats, come down dressed in flowers and bells, walked by the farmers who spent the summer up there with them. The village band plays them in. Folk groups in Ladin costume walk alongside.
The important thing to understand is that this is not a show staged for tourists. The animals genuinely have to come down before the weather turns. The festival is built around a working day.
Moena Almabtrieb 2026 Dates
The Puzzone di Moena PDO Festival runs Friday 18 to Sunday 20 September 2026. It spreads across Moena, Soraga and Predazzo.
There are two separate cattle parades, and this is where most people get it wrong:
- Saturday 19 September, Soraga. The Desmonteada de Soraga. Herds set off at dawn from Passo San Pellegrino and parade the main street around midday.
- Sunday 20 September, Moena. La Desmontegada through the streets of the town center. This is the bigger one.
The full 2026 program is published online starting in August on visitmoena.it and on the Val di Fassa tourist board site. Bookmark it now and check it again in the last week of August, because individual event times shift year to year even though the structure stays the same.
Which festival day is right for you?
Tap a day. Times shown are from the most recent published programme and are a reliable guide to the 2026 shape.
Where Is Moena, and How to Get There
Moena sits at 1,184 meters at the southern end of Val di Fassa, in Trentino, where the valley meets Val di Fiemme.
It is Ladin-speaking and locally known as Moena la Fata delle Dolomiti, the Fairy of the Dolomites.
Approximate driving times:
- Bolzano: 40 km, about 1 hour
- Lago di Carezza: 20 km, about 30 minutes over Passo di Costalunga
- Canazei: 20 km, about 30 minutes
- Trento: 55 km, about 1 hour 15
- Verona airport (VRN): 200 km, about 2 hours 30
- Innsbruck (INN): 150 km, about 2 hours 15
- Venice (VCE): 230 km, about 3 hours
By public transport, the nearest useful rail is Trento or Ora/Auer, then a Trentino Trasporti bus up the valley.
Bus 180 runs the Bolzano-Val di Fassa route. It is doable on a normal day and awkward on festival Sunday, when road closures shift the stops.
If you are piecing the wider journey together, Omio shows the rail and coach connections in one place.
I drove, and for a festival day I would drive again. The parade finishes before lunch, and you will want the freedom to go somewhere afterward.
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Moena Almabtrieb Parking and Arrival Times
Park at Navalge, the sports field area. It is free *as of right now, 8/3/2026*, and it is about a 15-minute walk into the center. This is the lot the organizers themselves point people to, and it is the answer to the question you are actually asking: “Will I be circling for an hour?”
Arrive by 10:00 a.m. on Sunday. Two reasons. Navalge fills, and the streets in the center close to traffic before the parade, so a late arrival means a much longer walk from wherever you end up.
I parked there in September 2025, and it was free. Rates can change, so treat that as a 2025 data point rather than a guarantee, but free municipal parking at a festival this size is unusual and worth knowing.
Where to Stand for the Moena Desmontegada
The parade moves through the streets of the town center and finishes near the main squares, Piaz de Ramon and Piaz de Sotegrava.
- For photos: stand along the street rather than in the squares. The squares are where the crowd bunches. On the approach street you get the herds coming toward you with the mountains behind, and space to step back.
- For atmosphere: the squares, where the band and the folk groups gather, and the whole thing dissolves into lunch.
- With kids or a dog: stand back from the barriers on the approach. These are working animals at the end of a long walk down, and the bells are genuinely loud.
The other option nobody uses: the herds also come up the narrow pedestrian lanes off the main street. There is no crowd there, no barrier, and the cows pass close enough to hear their breathing. If the main street looks impossible, walk one block off it.
The tip nobody tells you: the procession loops through the town center. If you hold your position rather than chasing it, the herds come back around, and you can fall in behind them as they head into the center. Most visitors watch once and leave. Waiting gets you a second pass and a much better view of the front.
What Happens at the Puzzone di Moena Festival
This is the part people underestimate. Sunday runs all day:
- Casel Village in Piaz de Ramon, a tasting area given over entirely to Puzzone, with games and workshops for children.
- The cheese-cutting ceremony, mid-morning, where wheels from seven local dairies are opened at once.
- La piazza del gusto from noon, Ladin dishes cooked with Puzzone by the local hoteliers’ association, paired with Trentino wines. This is your lunch. Buy tickets in advance on Friday or Saturday evening if you can.
- Street food from Agritur El Mas, whose chef holds a Michelin green star.
Honest note on the cheese: Puzzone is a washed-rind cheese, and it smells like it. If strong cheese is not your thing, the festival will still be a good day, but you are going for the parade and the wine rather than the tastings.
What to Eat at the Puzzone di Moena Festival
Come hungry. This is not a one-plate event, and the food is the reason to stay all day rather than leaving after the parade.
- Polenta with Puzzone. The dish. Creamy, sharp, unreasonably good in cold air. If you eat one thing, this.
- Goulash. Slow-cooked and heavy in the best way, which is exactly right for a crisp September morning.
- Calenderi dumplings. Stuffed with ricotta. A hearty local specialty you will not find on many menus outside the valley.
- Fritelli. Small fried dough bites, sweet, the correct thing to hold while walking between piazzas.
- Local beers and honey. Both worth tasting, and the honey travels home well.
Bring cash. Most stalls do not take cards, and this catches people out every year.
Work both piazzas. Piaz de Ramon and Piaz de Sotegrava each have their own stalls, their own music and their own crowd. People plant themselves in one and never discover the other.
Where to Stay in Moena for the Festival
Stay in Moena if you can. It is small, pastel-painted, with the Latemar behind it, and being able to walk home after a day of Puzzone and Trentino wine is worth a lot. Festival weekend sells out early, so book as soon as the August program lands.
If Moena is full, Soraga, Vigo di Fassa, and Predazzo are all a short drive away and offer more availability.
Here is a map to help you find a hotel to stay at in Moena, courtesy of STAY22
Practical Tips for the Moena Almabtrieb
- Bring cash. Most stalls are cash only.
- Dress in layers. Chilly morning, warm afternoon, cold again by evening. September in the valley swings hard.
- Going with kids? There is face painting, performers, an animal petting area, and the Casel Village workshops. It is a genuinely good family day.
- Buy Sunday lunch tickets on Friday or Saturday evening at the stand in the square, to skip the queue.
- Check the program in late August, when the 2026 schedule goes online at visitmoena.it.
Hiking Near Moena
The festival pairs well with a walk, and Moena is a better hiking base than people realise.
- Sentiero delle Perle (Path of the Pearls). A gentle cultural walk past meadows, old wooden barns and traditional Alpine buildings. The right speed for the day after a festival.
- Latemar Meadows (Latemar-Wiesen). Wide pasture under the Latemar spires. Go late for the enrosadira, when the rock turns rose-pink at sunset.
- Lago di Carezza. Thirty minutes over Passo di Costalunga, with a flat 20 to 30 minute loop.
Read more on Lago di Carezza
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Moena’s Ladin Heritage, and Why This Festival Matters
It is worth understanding what you are actually watching, because it changes the day.
Val di Fassa is one of the Ladin valleys. Ladin is a Rhaeto-Romance language that predates both Italian and German in these mountains, and Moena is at the southern edge of where it is still spoken daily.
The valley’s own name for itself is Fascia. That is why the cattle drive here is a Desmontegada rather than an Almabtrieb, and why the folk groups walking alongside the herds are in Ladin dress rather than Tyrolean dress.
The Puzzone cheese is part of the same story. Before it was a PDO product with a festival attached, it was Spretz Tzaorì, a Ladin name for a cheese made because the summer pasture produced more milk than anyone could drink. The festival is not a costume revival. It is a working valley celebrating the thing it has always done, with visitors welcome to watch.
Lago di Carezza Side Trip from Moena
Moena sits at the Val di Fassa end of the Passo di Costalunga. Drive over the pass heading west, and you are at Lago di Carezza in about half an hour.
It is the natural Saturday-morning or Monday-morning bookend to a Sunday parade, and the light on the Latemar is best early anyway.
Parking at Carezza has changed a lot and is more expensive than almost every blog post on the internet currently says, so read the numbers before you go.
Should You Go to the Moena Almabtrieb?
If you are anywhere in Val di Fassa in the third week of September, yes, without hesitation.
Not because of the parade, which lasts half an hour. Because of everything around it. A valley that still speaks Ladin, celebrating a cheese it has made for centuries, farmers walking herds down the same streets their grandparents did, collars brought out of cupboards once a year, and a town that feeds you all day for almost nothing.
So: 21 September 2026 for Moena, or the 19th for Soraga. Park at Navalge and be there by ten. Bring cash. Work both piazzas. Buy your lunch ticket the night before. Then stand somewhere on the approach street, or one block off it, and wait for the bells.
Moena Almabtrieb FAQs
The Puzzone di Moena PDO Festival runs 18 to 20 September 2026. The Desmontegada parade through Moena is on Sunday 20 September, with a second parade in Soraga on Saturday 19.
Around 11:45 a.m. in Moena, based on the most recent program. Confirm the exact time when the 2026 schedule goes online in August.
Yes. The parade, the markets and the street atmosphere all cost nothing. Only the sit-down lunch needs a ticket.
The Navalge sports field area, which is free and about a 15-minute walk from the center. Arrive by 10 a.m. on Sunday.
The Ladin word for the seasonal return of livestock from the high summer pastures. In German-speaking areas, the same tradition is called an Almabtrieb.
