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% of the inhabitants longing for independence. This region is an autonomous state and pays almost no taxes to Rome. The taxes reside in the community and everyone benefits. Additionally, the region sees a good bit of tourism for its unique combination of two cultures. All in all, the Sud Tyrol inhabitants have a sweet deal they are not likely to replicate under Austrian governance.

We love taking these weekend jaunts, as it is fairly inexpensive and the trains are clean and fast. The restaurants in this city serve typical Austrian fare as well as Italian pasta and fish dishes. Would you like some spinach gnocchi and a nice Austrian beer? How about some wiener schnitzel and a fine Pinot Grigio? 

The architecture here is quite a bit different from what you normally see in the rest of Italy. You can see the Gothic style in the Assumption of Our Lady Cathedral and the apartment buildings definitely resemble that of Salzburg.

Loree and I have been calculating our total number of steps walked since arriving in Italy. Thus far we have walked a little over 200 miles. In Bolzano we walked 12 miles in and around the city in an afternoon. We keep saying that now is the time in our life to take these adventures while we are still in great shape. Bolzano has an incredible promenade that follows along the river. We trekked it to the Runkelstein Castle and up a steep, stony slope to its entrance. The castle was initially erected in 1237 and went through revisions in the later centuries and it is amazingly well preserved. We also visited Mareccio Castle, which was quite a bit smaller, equally in pristine condition and sits very close to the heart of the city. Many of these castles must do double duty as wedding and meeting sites to defray the tremendous costs of upkeep.

We also managed to time our visit to the South Tyrol Museum of Archeology on Sunday morning. We waltzed in without a line and marveled at Ötzi, the mummified iceman. Ötzi was discovered in 1991 in the Ötztal Alps on the border between Austria and Italy. He was found in such good condition that many scientists at first believed that he was either a lost soul from the 1940s or perhaps a soldier from WWI. It was only after carbon dating and the additional discoveries of his clothing and weapons that we learned he is 5000 years old. Loree and I were fascinated by how well equipped he was for the terrain; he even used tree bark as an analgesic: a predecessor to aspirin. The most telling discovery was his copper axe, which pushed back the Copper Age a thousand years earlier than previously believed. The scientist also determined that he was murdered as x-rays showed an arrowhead still lodged in his shoulder. http://www.iceman.it/en/the-iceman/

 
The highlight of the trip might have been the cable car ride to the Soprabolzano (Oberbozen). It’s the longest cable-car journey in Europe, and takes 15 minutes until it rests at 1200 meters. We found a restaurant overlooking the valley, and Klaus, our waiter served us ice-cold Radler beers. When we told him we were from America, he engaged us with his story of how he explored the American West visiting Native Americans and driving a rented Mustang down Route 66. We marveled at the beautiful views of the landscape and could only think of scenes from the “Sound of Music”. You can opt to hike paths that crisscross the mountain range or walk down along the auto road to Bolzano. Who knows you might find another Ötzi along the way!