Bonjourno!
Well, last weekend I was lucky enough to go to South Tirol in the very north of Italy with some of the students from school. It's a very interesting region as it was originally part of Austria, and only became a part of Italy after the First World War. About 60% of the people there are of Austrian/German descent, and the other 40% are Italian. Both German and Italian are spoken there, and all the signs and even names of the towns are in both languages, so it's a really interesting fusion of cultures. The South Tirolians I have spoken to don't identify themselves as Italian, and are proud that their region has a degree of autonomy from the rest of Italy.
Scenery-wise it's a really spectacular area. It's just in the southern part of The Alps and so is surrounded by very steep mountains, and there are lots of castles and vineyards and huge chalet-style houses high up in the hills. Stayed in Meran which is a gorgeous wee city, and has been a holiday destination for hundreds of years. This particular weekend there happened to be the annual International Meran Wine Festival and Culinaria, which was fantastic.
Was €85 for a day ticket (about NZ$170), but was worth it for the experience and the opportunity to taste so many good quality European wines. There were thousands of them, and it was huge and a beautiful venue. There were also cheeses, salamis, olives, chocolate, coffee, etc, etc, so it was a pretty full-on day for the taste-buds. Of course it was all in the name of research!
Two of the students come from South Tirol, so they showed the rest of us around, took us to a restaurant up in the mountains, and we visited the family winery of one of them. It was amazing - Florian's house is over 500 years old and his family have been making wine there for seven generations. Fantastic wines too!
Another excellent weekend, and only three more to go in Germany so will keep you posted!
Ciao,
Shona
