Forty years ago, a year before we met, both Holly and I traveled through Bolzano at approximately the same time.  She was there for the Busoni International Piano Competition and I was just passing through on my way to Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany.  When we talked about it later, we figured out that we could have both been on the same train north.   Rather irrelevant to our story now, but I could not pass up the romance.

We even revisited it briefly when Holly and I were traveling through Europe ten years later with my two older daughters, Erika and Jessica, and 15 month old daughter, Jamie, in tow. (I never knew how much motion sickness one child could have until we drove the winding roads of European Alps with Jamie.)  Zach was with us too, but he was in utero, so that may not count.

Holly had been enchanted with Bolzano during her time at the competition, but when we just drove in to it 10 years later, it actually did not seem all that special.  Since most of the historic center of Bolzano is pedestrian only, we missed the charming, beautiful part and did not get out of the car.

So, back to the present.  Since the weather where we were, Asolo, was just socked in, we thought why not get really bad weather and go further into the mountains and take another look at Bolzano. It was only two hours away.  Checking our trusty weather apps, we were rather surprised that the forecast was for for clear skies and almost 60 degrees.  Oh that climate change, it does seem like a reward at first.  So off we went, Holly driving and me as the trusty navigator, unsure of what kind of road conditions we might encounter but vowing to turn back at the first sign of trouble .

Most of the way we were met with clouds and a little fog but it was well above freezing and the roads were perfect.  As promised, when we neared Bolzano, we were greeted with a beautiful spring-like day and fell in love with the place all over again.

Bolzano is a city of just over 200,000 people in the autonomous province of Südtirol  (South Tyrol)  of northern Italy.  It was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire until the end of WW I when it was ceded to Italy.  At that time almost 90% of the population of not only the city but the province were German speakers.  There was a real push during the Fascist period to quash the native Germans, including not using the language in the schools and even forbidding its use.  After WW II, that suppression led to violent push back in the late 50s and early 60s.  Those protests are what led to the province’s autonomous designation (exactly what that means in reality, I do not know).  Bolzano is now definitely bi-lingual, Italian and German.  All of the street signs and restaurant menus we saw were in both languages.  We also found that most people could also converse in English.  Here is a map I found online of the language distribution of the province.  As you can see, the native speaking Germans still dominate the area.

All of that aside, it is a remarkable town.  From its daily fresh air market full of fresh vegetables and meats of all kinds, to its winding medieval streets  with the mountains peeking out in all directions, to its very cosmopolitan feel, this is one of my favorite spots I have  ever visited.  If you get half a chance to visit Bolzano, take it.

I am afraid that my pictures do not really do the place justice, but I think you can get the idea.

The market

My personal favorite

Tomorrow, I will post about our visit to Cortina d’Ampezzo.  Another absolutely glorious village situated high in the Italian Alps.