April 12--Alto Adige/Sudtirol

On Tuesday it was Chris's turn to act as our tour guide. We jumped on a northbound train to Bolzano (or was it Bozen?). Actually it was both. Parts of northern Italy, especially in the east, have a dual personality. Long a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the area was annexed by Italy after WWI. Much of the area retains its Austrian roots and many inhabitants speak German more often than Italian. If you're a German speaker you're in Bozen, the capital of the autonomous province of Sudtirol. If you're an Italian speaker it's Bolzano/Alto Adige. Either way, it's a beautiful part of Italy.

From Bolzano, we took a cable car to Soprabolzano (or Oberbozen, if you prefer). The web says this was the first passenger cable car in the world, first built over a century ago. In Soprabolzano a train runs along the ridge line to Kolbenstein. We decided to hike out and ride the train back. The first part of the hike was along the highway and the views down into the valley were spectacular--so spectacular that we missed our first turn that would have taken us up into the woods off the highway. However, we found an alternate route and soon were walking through a nice pine forest. After we walked ourselves out, we hopped on the train back to Soprabolzano.

The highlight of our trip was a visit to the South Tyrol Museum of Archeology--the home of Otzi, the iceman. Otzi is the name given to a frozen mummified corpse found in a mountain pass between Italy and Austria. Finally determined to be about 5400 years old. The museum is fascinating and laid out like a detective puzzle. New information about Otzi is constantly coaxed out of the remains and the museum is updated accordingly. See Otzi for more information. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed inside the museum.

But here are some shots I took in Bolzano and on the mountain.

The Church. A very pretty roof and the interior was nice, too.

We saw vegetable and flower stands like these all over Italy.

Some street scenes from Bolzano.

The rest of the pictures are from our walk along the top of the mountain. The peaks in the background are the Dolomites.

This girl kept getting in front of my pictures.