Bolzano? Bozen? And South Tyrol

Bolzano is considered a bridge between Northern Europe and Southern Europe due to the three spoken languages in South Tyrol (Italian, German, and Ladin) and the confluence of Italian and German-Austrian culture. When we first arrived we were expecting a small mountain city, and in that regard Bolzano/Bozen did not disappoint. We were surprised that the city was split with half speaking German the other italian and some English as well.

We first noticed this when exiting the train station. We had gotten comfortable following signs showing us the exit ("uscita") in Italian. However we noticed these signs were now accompanied by "Usicta / Ausgang." The city was formerly part of Austria until Mouselini took it over. Today the architecture looks mostly Austrian and Dave and I definitely had our first "we aren't in Kansas" anymore moments. The area of South Tyrol is breathtaking full of small mountain towns and quaint villages. Outside of local busses the most common form of public transportation is cable cars and gondalas between mountain towns.Read more