Sunday Bolzano

After my ‘catch up’ afternoon on Saturday I was looking forward to somewhere different on Sunday. I was not disappointed. We caught the train north and I was surprised at how quickly we were out of the plains and climbing along a valley with steep mountains on either side.

Bolzano is north of Verona in the South Tyrol area. It has only been part of Italy since after WW1 . 26% of the people are German and all the official signs seem to be in both languages. There are special administrative arrangements to help the German people maintain their ethnic identity. Apparently the Dalai Lama has visited several times to see if the same system could work in Tibet.

There was a German festival being held on the day we visited. We walked from the train station through the streets, through the main square filled with trestle tables and little stalls selling sausages, meat, beer, potatoes, apple strudel, beer, more sausages and more beer. Lots of people. First off we went to see the exhibition of Otsi. In September 1991 2 walkers stumbled across a body which had been frozen in ice for 5300 years. The exhibition was excellent. It went through the discovery, how details of his life were found out, info on the contents of his backpack, his clothes, all sorts of things, how his body (which we saw through glass) was preserved. It was one of those things that you know you will remember for a long time.

By then it was lunch time. While we ate sausages etc we watched some young girls doing several German dances that involved a lot of foot stamping, hand clapping, hand to feet clapping, leg kicks into the air, jumping off and on benches - a lot of hard, well coordinated effort.

Next was an amazing cable car ride that went high up into the mountains to Upper Bolzano. We looked out over isolated farmhouses, little hamlets, valleys, spectacular views. After coffee at one of the fancy hotels we came back down the mountain and back to Verona