Dolomites by train

I’ve gone to Merano by train, via Bolzano - there’s a great bus system in the area also. For instance, you can go by bus from Bolzano to Ortisei, which would be a great location for hikes.

There's a train line up the valley from Verona to Innsbruck. It passes through Trento, Bolzano and Bressanone as well as some smaller places. A common path into the Dolomites is train to Bolzano followed by a bus uphill. Depending on where you want to go, you might choose to take the train to Bressanone instead, but I think there's faster access to more places from Bolzano. Both of those towns are very attractive in the Austrian style (I haven't been to Trento), but Bolzano is much larger and has the museum housing the Ice Man. There are lots of lifts to get to higher elevations, but I'm not sure what will be running during the time period of your trip. I think it's common for alpine lifts to close for maintenance between ski season and hiking season.

This website has links to schedules for buses into the Val Gardena, though only the current schedules seem to be posted. This one seems more comprehensive but doesn't seem to have spring schedules available yet. The latter (from 2019) may well be online somewhere.

On valgardena.it, you should be able to find out when the lifts will start running for the summer season. If the info is not there yet, e-mail them - they are very helpful. We were in Ortisei in early June this year. Only some of the lifts were running, and as I recall, none of them started up before the end of May. You could certainly take the bus up the valley from Bolzano for some great views, and there are nice walks to do in and between the small towns along the way that don't require the mountain lifts.