The ANNOTICO Report
It is
described as: "It's German organization with Italian elegance,"
"If
you go one hour away from here near [distinctively Italian]
Also, The
Austrian claim is somewhat "overblown". See Brief Profile of "
On the
other hand, the
BOLZANO : GERMAN OR ITALIAN? YES!
By Robert
V. Camuto
Surely you've heard some
version of the Heaven and Hell joke.
In Heaven the Italians are
either the cooks, lovers or entertainers, and the
Germans are mechanics or organizers.
Conversely, in Hell the
Germans are entertainers or the police, and the Italians organize things.
In real life, when you mix
Latin and Germanic you get
"It's
German organization with Italian elegance," explained one fellow traveler,
a Greek businessman who said he returns to the region every year for
cross-country skiing and hiking. "If you go one hour away from here near
[distinctively Italian]
In fact, the
Not surprisingly, the
region produces many of
The lush mountain
landscapes, dotted with medieval castles, wooden chalets and onion-domed
churches, are right out of "The Sound of Music."
On my family's first
stumble into this region two years ago, I'd felt I'd lost my geographical
bearings. Where, I'd wondered, were we? We'd eaten spaghetti for lunch,
bratwurst and sauerkraut for dinner, and strudel and tiramisu for dessert. We'd
gotten lost trying to figure out the bilingual road signs. At our hotel, the
German-speaking maids couldn't wait to get into our room in the morning to
scrub up and pound the bedcovers. When I spoke my rudimentary Italian in
public, I had the odd feeling that the old-timers in lederhosen were eyeing me
suspiciously.
"It's typical of
Americans who come here," explained one small hotel operator outside of
It is probably because of
this culture shock that
My wife, son and I
recently finished our second trip here; this time we were much more prepared
for the culture shock. Whether we were greeted with guten
tag or buon giorno,
we answered in kind. In fact, I found that German speakers preferred it when we
spoke English (I improvised a German accent to feel like I was speaking a
foreign language) rather than Berlitz Italian. In
cafes, restaurants and old
Hint: It's generally
German men drinking beer in quart-size glasses. And if the woman is wearing
sensible shoes, she's probably not Italian.
Old
World Made New
Bolzano is a small city simply laid out
around one immense public square -- the Piazza Walther, or Waltherplatz,
lined with cafes, shops, hotels and an imposing sandstone Gothic cathedral
topped by a multicolored tile roof. In the center of the plaza -- animated
throughout the year by events ranging from squash, flower and Speck festivals
to one of
We stayed on the piazza in
the Hotel Greif,
"I think it's the
best village I've seen for restoration," my son, a well-traveled European,
commented that afternoon as we strolled along the Via dei
Portici,
Lined with centuries-old
arcades and often elaborately decorated buildings, the Via Portici
is home to boutiques that sell Prada accessories next
door to edelweiss-inspired crafts or
We turned up the wide
street of market stalls -- the Piazza delle Erbe,
which was shuttered on Saturday afternoon -- and stumbled on one of
Our mission
Sunday morning -- after wading through a bicultural breakfast buffet where
mozzarella met a platter of Bavarian-looking ham -- was to look in on
Oetzi's home, Bolzano's
South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, has mounted what is one of the world's most
fascinating archaeological exhibits detailing his remarkably preserved
clothing, tools, and hunting bow and arrows. Oetzi
himself -- looking like a human-size dried fig -- is viewed through a small
window that looks into his refrigerated case. Multimedia exhibits detail
everything from Oetzi's rescue to an autopsy
revealing his stomach contents to a 2001 study that concluded the 45-year-old
was killed by an arrow wound.
One aspect that's glossed
over is Oetzi's long journey to
International experts have
since examined everything from tooth samples to the pollen and dust covering Oetzi's gear to determine whether he was pre-Austrian or
pre-Italian. The operative conclusion is that Oetzi
was from north of
Robert V. Camuto last wrote for Travel about the wine bar Caves Petrissans in