A Taste of Italy

From France I flew to Bergamo, Italy. Thirty-five years ago when we stayed here during our one month trip around Italy, Tony and I deemed it to be one of the loveliest small cities of the world. It hasn’t changed. Though the suburbs have sprawled further now and the tourist numbers have grown, the alta villa (old town) remains as attractive as ever, its ancient tall buildings with painted façades overlooking the narrow, cobbled streets and pretty squares with stone fountains and outdoor cafes, the beautiful little churches, the red-tiled rooves, everywhere hanging baskets of bright flowers, the fabulous Italian food, shop windows to make you drool…

But although Bergamo is still delicious, its airport is now a destination for the budget airline Ryanair and therefore a meeting point for my girls and I who, amazingly and after considerable organisation by Hannah, all arrived within a few hours of each other: Lydia from Florence, Hannah from Amsterdam and me from Bordeaux.

What a treat! We shared a tiny white room in a guest house up a huge stone staircase, three beds in a row, and drank fruity red house wine from enormous glasses at the corner restaurant which served pasta that melted in the mouth, while enchanting music played from the archway onto the square next door as a quartet of expert string musicians busked long into the night.

View from our airbnb

In the morning we drove for three hours to Siusi allo Sciliar also known as Seis am Schlern, a tiny village in South Tyrol. And that is normal for this part of Italy. It is only 50kms from the Austrian border and about 150km from the closest German town. Almost all the tourists are Germans and a significant number of Germans live her permanently. Everything is written in both Italian and German: the town names, the signs, all brochures and tourist information. When you greet someone you never know whether to speak in German or Italian, or indeed, English as some of them speak our language as well. For an avid linguist like me it’s a frustrating delight! Just when I thought I had some basic Italian sorted, the shopkeeper or whoever would switch to German assuming, because of my bad Italian, that I was German. If I started talking German (for example at the petrol station where bliss of bliss you give a man your car keys and he fills up your tank with petrol and then takes your money while you stay in your seat – remember those days?), they would address me in Italian as we had Italian licence plates on our rental car. I loved it of course! What better way to keep the old brain ticking over!

12th century castle ruins

Hannah had been here camping in the Spring and knew we’d love it. How could we not? It’s stunningly beautiful. I’d never seen any of the spectacular Dolomite Mountains. No wonder they are all protected as a UNESCO World Heritage site. From bucolic green valleys where sheep graze in the sunshine and farmers rake hay by hand, their enormous, sheer rock walls rise staggeringly steeply to jagged peaks and sharp ridges. All around and in between them are expansive grassy basins criss-crossed by trails and tiny roads, a skier’s paradise in winter, but in summer offering endless walking or cycling with mountain chalets or refuges providing sometimes accommodation but almost always refreshments and food.

One day we went to Merano (Meran), a town about an hour’s drive to the west of Siusi up a different valley. This is an elegant old spa resort set in a basin surrounded by 3,000+ metre mountains and has long been a popular spot for writers and artists who have enjoyed its mild climate. Indeed, the abundance of palm trees, banana plants and bougainvillea give it an almost tropical feel. A clear mountain river races through the town centre and the walkways and cycleways alongside it are a delight. In fact, bikes are everywhere; I don’t think I’ve seen such large and full bike-parks since Beijing, testament to the number of bike lanes, paths and trails throughout and around the town. As I’ve always said, build them and people will use them!