South of the Border, Italy

Location: South Tyrol Province, Italy

Introduction:

We’ve left Austria and entered the northern most province of Italy named South Tyrol. But have we really? It turns out that this region was part of Austria up until World War I. While German remains the primary language spoken here, there’s plenty of delicious Italian food to be found and that makes us happy. We were surrounded by the natural beauty of the Eastern Alps. We really didn’t know what to expect from this region. We came away duly impressed by the people, food and scenery. If you’re looking for a place off the beaten path to enjoy and relax, this just might be the place.

Sights Visited:

We took a cable car up to Merano 2000 mountain’s outdoor kid’s camp, which is really a top-notch playground with two zip lines and a long marble run. The best part is their Alpin Bob summer toboggan run. Our daughter wasn’t old enough to ride by herself but she took control and never hit the brakes making for an exhilarating ride when we each accompanied her.

Adelaide has a fascination with mummies. So, when we heard that the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology is home to a five-thousand-year-old mummy, we just had to go and meet “Öetzi”. It’s not for everybody but we enjoyed it. The museum is located in the city of Balzano. Following the museum, we took advantage of their Ritten cable car up to Soprabolzano, which provided scenic views of the Dolomite Mountain peaks. From there, we hiked up to the “Funimal Forest”, which made for a good nature walk.

Play:

With playgrounds where we stayed and ate, we didn’t look for any others but we did stumble upon a nice little one atop the mountain in Soprabolzano.

Accommodations:

We used Booking.com to locate a family-friendly apartment hotel in Merano named Das Grafenstein. There were a variety of room configurations and we had to call the property to get what we wanted. As a result, we secured what we wanted while negotiating a better rate. We booked four nights in a two-bedroom apartment with a small kitchen that had a two-burner cook top but no oven and no microwave. The air conditioning worked but could have been better. There was no washer in the room but a coin-operated washer and drier was available for use. It probably sounds like we’re complaining but we’re not. We liked our apartment setup and loved the overall property. They ran a kid’s club Monday through Friday. They have an amazing playground that includes a unique pedal go-cart track, petting zoo, indoor and outdoor pools and more. It’s a kid’s delight. A tasteful breakfast buffet and an underground parking garage were included. The staff were great and it was quite an enjoyable stay.

Food & Drink:

We love good Italian food and we feasted on it here. It started at Rossl Cavollino where our daughter would have eaten a whole pizza by herself if we hadn’t stopped her. We followed that up with a most memorable meal at Haidenhof restaurant and winery at their Saturday barbeque. We paired some savory food with some fine wine (Pinot Blanc) made on premise and followed that up with some of their Grappa. We enjoyed them so much that we purchased a bottle of each to take with us. Adelaide enjoyed playing on their playground, petting their dog and farm animals too. In order to stay balanced, we dined at Pfefferlechner Home Brewery, which also had a playground and farm animals. It was quite good as well.

Transportation System:

It was only a two-hour drive from Innsbruck on an Autobahn toll road but it was intense through mountain passes with tight lanes, big trucks, no shoulders and lots of curves, ascents and descents. It didn’t take long to be reminded that Italian drivers are fairly aggressive. We’re still encountering some single lane roads with hair pin turns that require us to occasionally have to back up and find a turn-out to let the opposing car get by.

Shout Out:

The staff at Das Grafenstein were wonderful. We couldn’t have been treated any better. Grazie!

For Your Amusement:

It works for grapes, so why not for apples too. We’re used to apple orchards with rows of large trees but here we found them trellised.
We’ll take a pass on this pizza place.
What do you do when the A/C doesn’t work as well as you had hoped? Head to OBI, Italy’s version of Home Depot, and do some shopping.
They’re still using paper tickets on the Autostrada here. That brings back fond memories of the New Jersey Turnpike.

Highlight:

The food and service we received in this region far exceeded our expectations. Many of the servers spoke three languages: German, Italian and English. That’s impressive.