August 30, 2024

August 30, 2024

On the road early, we drove into nearby Innsbruck (Bridge on the Inn), capital of Austria's Tirol region. We turned south crossing the Inn River and headed uphill over Brenner Pass. It is a toll road today and has been for centuries since it was a major trade route connecting German kingdoms with the Mediterranean empires. The route is scenic but very crowded, especially with trucks and RV trailers. It is still a major trade route.

In Italy we take a detour to explore the Val di Funes. It is a winding road up a narrow valley. In the town of Santa Maddalena, we park and walk through the town and uphill to a viewpoint. We pass a farmer cutting hay with an over-sized mower off the very steep hillside. He will have to rake it by hand. The viewpoint looks like it might make a nice photograph but the sun is absolutely in the wrong position in the morning.

We punt and move on continuing south to Bolzano or Bozen, capital of South Tirol. Despite being German-speaking and part of the old Austrian Empire, this part of Tyrol was given to Italy as an inducement to join the Allies during WWI. Mussolini built a Victory Monument here and tried to Italianize the region, changing the name of every town, and banning the German language. Resistance and ethnic disputes followed until Italy finally gave the region significant autonomy in 1992.

We had a delicious pizza lunch on a terrace restaurant before visiting the South Tyrol Archeological Museum. It is famous for holding Otzi, the Iceman. His body was accidentally found high in the Alps frozen and mummified in 1991. Otzi is more than 5000 years old and has provided archeologists with an unending treasure of Stone Age discoveries. Besides his genetics, he had remarkably well-preserved clothing, copper axe, bow and arrows, and a dagger. His story is fascinating.

Afterwards we walked the old town center. Bolzano is a big city surrounded by mountains. It has a large almost medieval layout but with a modern upscale Alpine architectural style. 

From Bolzano we drove back north exiting at Val Gardena. Ten miles up this valley we found our next accommodation outside the ski town of Ortisei. Conveniently our little hotel has a great restaurant.