Why are they speaking to us in German?
It is has been awhile since we last updated everyone on our experiences. Life moves slowly here and earth-shattering news is rare. We just returned Tuesday from our three-day adventure in Bolzano/Bozen. Why you may ask does it have two names? Let’s examine some history. In WWI Italy fought against the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. To make a long war short Italy ended up on the winning side and won as reparation the areas of Tyrol and Trieste. Roughly 23% of the population in this area are Italian speakers while for the majority the preferred language is German. 100 years later the area is believed by many to be the most perfect place to live. Here you have Italian food and culture mixed with Germanic discipline and order. There is quite a bit of discussion regarding the desire for the inhabitants of this region to return to Austria. This appears to me to be more needling at the Italians expense and is not likely to happen for a few reasons even though a recent vote saw 92%