It really started with a simple observation.
The moment people begin searching for something, they suddenly start looking differently.
Small details become interesting. People slow down. They notice things. They start asking questions. Places they would normally walk past suddenly feel important.
Before SouthTyrolQuests existed, I worked for many years at the South Tyrol Museum of Nature. At first mostly in the scientific department, later increasingly in education and museum didactics. School tours, workshops, exhibitions. A lot of time spent thinking about one question:
How do you actually make people curious?
Because attention is difficult to force. Especially with school classes at nine o’clock in the morning.
One important moment for me was the exhibition Incredible Bugs. During the exhibition, we developed one of the first educational escape rooms in South Tyrol. The original idea was fairly simple: instead of only explaining content, make people experience it playfully.
And something interesting happened.
People suddenly wanted to figure things out themselves.
They discussed clues. Tried different ideas. Searched carefully. Even visitors who probably would never have voluntarily read long texts about insects became completely focused.
But the most interesting part was something else.
People began placing themselves inside the story.
It was no longer just about consuming information. Suddenly they became part of something. They were not simply looking for the correct answer. They wanted to understand what had happened. And in that moment, attention changes completely.
At some point another question appeared:
Why only inside a museum?
South Tyrol itself is full of stories. Old paths, hidden alleys, strange names, castles, promenades, walls, symbols and landscapes shaped by centuries of human life. Most of it is already there. People usually just move past it too quickly.
I noticed this myself while developing the first tours.
I grew up in Merano and honestly thought I knew the city quite well. Then one day, while working on a tour, I suddenly found myself standing inside the Ortner Passage, a tiny dead-end alley just beside the busy Rennweg street.
Only a few steps away from the noise.
And yet the atmosphere completely changes.
Everything becomes quieter. The city suddenly feels slower. Small artworks appear between windows and old walls. Wooden birds sit above the alley on weathered beams. A framing workshop nearby. Pictures behind glass. Improvised little details most people probably never consciously notice, even if they walk past them every day.
Those are the places that stay with you.
Not necessarily because they are spectacular. Mostly because they feel real.
And that is still what SouthTyrolQuests is about today.
Not making South Tyrol artificially more exciting. It really does not need help with that. The region already contains more than enough stories, strange details and hidden corners.
The riddles themselves are mostly just a tool.
The interesting part happens inside people’s heads.
The moment someone begins stepping into a story, the place itself changes as well. An ordinary alley becomes a setting. An old tree becomes a clue. A walk suddenly turns into a small adventure.
Maybe that is why stories stay with us so well.
Because for a short moment, we are no longer only observing them. We become part of them.
This article was translated from German with the help of artificial intelligence.