South Tyrol

Tourist board

South Tyrol Marketing Pfarrplatz, 11 +39 0471 999999, [email protected] - Contacting the South Tyrol Tourist Board you can get information about the region and single areas and ask for catalogs and brochures.

Magazines, events calendars

Inside - events in south tyrol (http://www.inside.bz.it) bilingual German, Italian pocket calendar with all events in Bozen and in South Tyrol. The index is written in English. You can find it everywhere. Free. Also online available.

Bilingualism

The majority of the South Tyrolean population is German-speaking and in some valleys it's the totality. The Italian-speaking population lives mainly in the Bolzano/Bozen urban area and other larger towns like Merano/Meran. Ladin-speaking people live in the Gardena and Badia Valleys. Keep in mind that all South Tyroleans are taught Italian and that almost all Ladins speak German. Italians tend to monolingual depending upon where they live. All the road signs have to be bi-lingual tri-lingual where Ladin is spoken and normally the first name identifies the majority language in the area.

Holidays

The best-loved holiday in South Tyrol is probably Christmas. The Christmas atmosphere begins the first Advent Sunday and the first Christmas-related unofficial holiday is on 6th December when the Nikolaus St Nicholas brings sweeties and small gifts to the children. In all South Tyrol there are ceremonies and the arrival of the Krampus - violent devils be careful, they could hit if drunk. South Tyroleans celebrate Christmas on the eve night. Between Christmas and 6th January children dressed as the Three Kings the Sternsänger, cantors of the star go home to home to sing and collect money for charities. Differently as in other parts of Italy and commonly as in Catholic German-speaking countries, in South Tyrol the Whit Monday is a regional festivity. During Carnival Fasching in German there are a lot of events.Here a list of official festivities shops and offices are closed:

New Year's Day

Neujahr, Capodanno, January 1 - shops are closed on December 31 afternoon too

Three Kings' Day (Epiphany)

Dreikönigstag, Epifania, January 6

Carnival

Fasching, Carnevale, variable FebruaryThursday Carnival's Day Fetter Donnerstag, Giovedì Grasso, shops are closed in the afternoon Tuesday Carnival's Day Fetter Dienstag, Martedì Grasso, shops are closed in the afternoon

Easter

Ostern, Pasqua, variable on Sunday - date is the same as in other western countries. Also Easter Monday is holiday.

Liberation Day

Italienischer Staatsfeiertag, Giornata nazionale della Liberazione dal nazifascismo, April 25 - nationalwide festivity although in South Tyrol American troops arrived on May 3, 1945.

May Day

Tag der Arbeit, Festa del Lavoro, May 1

Whit Monday

Pfingstmontag, Lunedì di Pentecoste, variable end May, begin June

National Holiday

Italienischer Staatsfeiertag, Festa della Repubblica, June 2

Assumption of Our Lady

August 15 Mariä Himmelfahrt, Assunzione - slang in both languages Ferragosto

All Saint's Day

November 1 Allerheiligen, Ognissanti - the night before many youths celebrate Halloween - it doesn't belong to the locale tradition

St Nicholas

Nikolaustag, San Nicolò, December 6 - shops are open

Immaculate Conception

Mariä Empfang, Immacolata Concezione, December 8

Christmas

Christtag, Natale, December 25 - shops are closed on December 24 afternoon too

St Stephen Day

Stephanitag, Santo Stefano, December 26

Mass media

In South Tyrol there is a trilingual media panorama and international newspapers are easy to find especially from Germany. There are no local newspapers in English but the most popular dailies are the Dolomiten conservative in German and the Alto Adige independent in Italian. Other dailies are the Neue Südtiroler Tageszeitung liberal and the Corriere dell'Alto Adige independent - the local edition of the Italian Corriere della Sera. The most popular edition of Alto Adige is on Sunday - Dolomiten isn't published on Sunday and at its place there is the Sunday tabloid Zett. The most important weekly is the ff liberal in German.

The Italian public broadcaster RAI has a broadcasting centre in Bolzano called Sender Bozen in German, Sede di Bolzano in Italian and Radio TV Ladina in Ladin which produces a trilingual program daily. The local radio of RAI FM4 transmits in German, Ladin and Italian news in Italian are transmitted on Radio 2. News in German every hour and news in Ladin two times a day. Many private radio broadcasters transmit in Italian, German or Ladin - a radio from Bolzano Radio Tandem transmits also for the immigrant population Albanian, Spanish, Urdu, Arabic, Ukrainian, etc....

Also television broadcasts in the three regional languages with five newscasts every day. News in Italian Telegiornale Regionale are broadcast in both Bolzano and Trento and cover Trentino and South Tyrol and are on air at 2:00pm, 7:35pm and at night with news only for South Tyrol. News in German Tagesschau at 8:00pm and 10:10pm and news in Ladin TRAIL at 7:55pm. German general programmes are broadcast every evening, on Thursday evening in Ladin and on Sunday morning in Italian. RAI Bolzano transmits on the regional frequency of the Italian State-run RAI3. Two private television broadcasters Videobolzano 33 and TCA transmit only in Italian evening news at 7:30pm on Videobolzano 33 and at 7:00pm on TCA.

Climate

There are a lot of different and strange climates inside South Tyrol - normally South Tyrolean climate is sunny and dry and warmer than on the northern part of the Alps. That doesn't mean that the climate has to be Mediterranean - as local tourist guides say. The climate is of continental type hot summers and cold winters with ambiguous springs and autumns influenced by Alpine characteristics - for examples summer is the year's most rainy season. On the mountains and in upper valleys the climate is strongly alpine very cold winters and fresh summers. During the winter and the springs in the valleys blows often the föhn - a strong wind which is normally warm in the winter and cold in the spring. Summers in the lower valleys Bolzano and Merano surroundings can be very sultry. Annual average temperature in Bolzano is 11.6°C and the extreme records there go from -17 to +40°C. On the upper valleys the temperature is considerably lower annual average from 3 to 5°C. Winter is the better season for skiing, spring and autumn for hiking and visiting places and summer for hiking in the woods - pay attention to the weather conditions!

People & culture

South Tyrol is a region of multiple identities - South Tyrolean can differently feel themselves as Tyroleans, Austrians, of German ethnicity, Italians, Ladins or simply South Tyrolean - or "Altoatesini". Normally German-speaking people feel specifically South Tyroleans and Tyroleans on an historical level while Italian-speaking people feel mainly Italians or Italian-speaking South Tyroleans or eventually "Altoatesini" - people from Upper Adige. Ladin-speaking people consider themselves as Ladins but historically as Tyrolean Ladins. Ethnic tension has been a major problem in the past but it is not the main topic in South Tyrol anymore and nowadays ethnic tensions play themselves out more inside political parties. It is true that history and politics are strictly connected here. For the most part and particular within the younger generations all three groups coexist in relative peace and harmony with the Ladins playing the role of a kind of middle-man peace broker in the past. The success of multi-cultural South Tyrol is largely due in part to the generous cultural and political autonomy that the region has been granted by Rome with the seal of approval from Vienna.

For the descendants of native Tyroleans the national hero is Andreas Hofer who fought against the Revolutionary French in order to save their homeland's freedom. Other famous South Tyroleans are Walther von der Vogelweide - the most celebrated of the Middle High German lyrics poet who was supposed to have been born near Bolzano - and the Medieval poet Oswald von Wolkenstein.

German-speaking but often without ethnic distinction South Tyroleans have stereotypes in common with Bavarians - from the Italian point of view: Lederhosen leather pants, sausages and a lot of beer. From Germany they are seen as Mediterranean, singers and wine drinkers. Alcohol is though a problem in South Tyrol's society for all ethnic groups - especially among the young.

South Tyrol has two unofficial anthems: one is the Tyrolean anthem - which is officially recognized in Austrian Tyrol - and the other is a famous song known as "Bozner Bergsteigerlied" or "Südtirollied" which begins with the words "Wohl ist die Welt so groß und weit..." Surely is the world so big and wide.... Ladins have also their own anthems Gherdëina Gherdëina for the Gardena Valley and a general anthem of Ladins.South Tyrol participate every year to the Gran Prix der Volksmusik which is broadcast in Eurovision - its first participation has been in 2001 and has won every year since then. The most known folk group are probably the Kastelruther Spatzen. Pop and rock are the preferred styles by the young.

South Tyroleans are almost all Catholics and quite conservative - but it depends on the areas. In the most touristy developed regions and in cities or bigger towns people are more open. It's said that there is no big differences in behavior of Germans or Italians - forming a nice inter-ethnic regional identity, some tourists affirm that local Italians are a bit closer and different from other Italians.

Today the region is famous for its sporty people such as Isolde and Carolina Kostner, Armin Zöggeler sled's world champion or Ylenia Scapin. Other famous people include the former journalist and now European parliamentary Lilli Gruber. Italian atheletes from South Tyrol often represent Italy in the winter olympics and won many times. This draws an interesting parallel to the Quebecois of Canada.

History

It is known that people have lived here since the stone age - like Ötzi the Iceman, and the region was part of the Roman Empire from 59 BC until the Migration Period. From the 6th to the 9th century, the region was settled by the Bavarii together with the Langobards and the romanised natives. As part of France and later the Holy Roman Empire, the region had a strategic importance as a bridgehead to Italy. Large parts of the province was donated to the Bishops of Trent and Brixen. After their caretakers, the earls of Tyrol like Meinhard II of Gorizia-Tyrol had gathered the province under their command, the region together with the valleys to the north was known as Tyrol.

In 1342, the earldom went over to the Bavarian dukes again when Emperor Louis IV voided the first marriage of Countess Margarete Maultasch. But already in 1363, the Wittelsbach released the country for Habsburg.

Habsburg ruled the region almost continuously until 1918. It was only in 1805 when Austria was defeated by Napoleon and lost Tyrol to Bavaria in the Peace of Pressburg Bavaria allied itself with Napoleon in the war. Tyroleans, lead by Andreas Hofer, rose in rebellion against Bavarian rule. In 1814, Tyrol is transferred again from Bavaria to Austria at the Congress of Vienna.

In 1919, after the First World War, South Tyrol was annexed by Italy as a war prize. Government officials, soldiers and other settlers brought in by the Italian state, especially the Fascist regime, from all over Italy and reached a third of the total population by the early 1950s. Their official efforts attempted to erase the German cultural element of the area's history. Their descendants now make up about a quarter of the population.

As a result of the pact between Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, the German speakers in the region were given the option to relocate to Germany. Only few accepted, and most of them returned to their homeland after the war, anyway. During the end of the war, the region was briefly annexed to the Third Reich, briefly reuniting the Tyrol.

After WWII, the region was returned to remained part of Italy as a province, but with large administrative and legislative autonomy, which finally took effect in the 1970's and 80's. Since the 1970's there have been repeated calls for full independence or reunification with Austria but this secessionist movement has yet to be embraced by any major German-speaking political parties preferring to embrace the very successful contemporary system of power sharing.

Geography

South Tyrol is geographically the northernmost region of Italy and because of its history and location in the middle of the Alps it's still considered a Central European region although Italy is in Mediterranean or Southern Europe - it's also true that all regions in North-Eastern Italy consider themselves as Central European actually they have more geographic similarities with Slovenia - which is considered fully Central European and located on the southern part of the Alps - than with the rest of Italy. The region is totally composed by high mountains and their valleys. The best known part of South Tyrolean Alps are the Dolomites with the Schlern 2,662 mt or the Rosengarten 3,002 mt. The Dolomites are located in eastern South Tyrol while the highest mountains are in western South Tyrol with the Ortler Alps highest peak - 3.902 mt. The Dolomites offer some of the most dramatic mountain scenery on the planet with their striking appearance, which has evolved over many millennia as erosion and weathering shaped what were originally under-sea coral reefs. They take their name from Deodat de Dolomieu, the French geologist who first described them. The most important river is the Adige/Etsch which flows into the Adriatic Sea while the Eisack and Rienz are the two most important of the Adige's/Etsch's affluents in South Tyrol. The Adige trench runs north - south, dividing the western known as the Brenta and eastern Dolomites. The only river which doesn't flow into the Adriatic Sea is the Drava which passes through most of the Central European countries and enters the Black Sea.