What comes to your mind when you combine pristine Alpine scenery with Teutonic efficiency and Italian flaire? Lush green valleys, vineyards in autumn colours, delicious local cuisine with smoked ham, tasty cream pies and cakes, tidy towns and villages yet with such irresistable, romantic charm?
Unfortunately, Sudtirol is not quite what I had expected it to be. Instead of a region which combines all the advantages of Teutonic efficiency and sweet Italian dolce vita, it turns out that Sudtirol has managed to accomplish quite the opposite and ended up with the worst of both worlds: Teutonic aloofness (sometimes almost bordering on rudeness) and Italian efficiency.
As soon as I stepped out of Bolzano's train station, I thought I had already crossed the border into Austria. The streets, the cathedral, the atmosphere, the way houses and things are built and organized in Bozen are all so teutonic, there is almost nothing Italian about the whole town, except for the street signs with Italian names and the occasional splattering of Italians spoken on the street.
The problem with Sudtirol is, they are suffering from some kind of acute identity crisis. They refuse to be seen as Italian - fair enough, since I can imagine ten thousand reasons of not being wanted to be seen as Italian as well - but they are neither German nor Austrian too. In spite of their efforts to crave out their own cultural identity over the past 90 years, the population and the villages still seem to be at a loss about who they really are.
Italians who live in the area told me the Sudtirol population consider themselves Austrian, but if they really want to embrace this Austrian identity, surely they could have first started doing so by being more friendly and open towards foreign tourists? At least the people I met in Innsbruck are all quite friendly when it comes to dealing with foreign tourists.
Also, given that there are two universities in the region, and Bozen is the seat of the regional government, the city comes across as really backward when none of the hotels or cafes offer free wireless internet, even though hotel accommodations in Sudtirol are very expensive. To make things more complicated for people like me who rely on access to internet for their livelihoods, there is only one internet cafe in the entire city centre. Even when I offered to pay for going online at one of the top local hotels, they apologised for the lack of internet facilities altogether. Some friends consider this lack of modern communication infrastructures as the direct implication of the fact that more than 80% of visitors to Sudtirol are Old Age Pensioners from German-speaking countries aged 75 and above, who probably have no use for internet whilst on holidays.
The city centre of Bozen is very compact, you can get around by foot within an hour. The main square is Waltersplatz/Piazza Walter, as everything in Sudtirol is written in both German and Italian. Locals speak German with very heavy accent, and as they have very few visitors from outside of Europe's German-speaking countries, shops in Sudtirol do not offer VAT rebate for tourists from outside of the European Union. This really discourages me from shopping at Bozen, although I must say on the other hand there aren't really that many interesting shops around which are worth splashing the money.
Prices for eating out in Bozen are steep, in spite of the presence of hundreds of university students in the city. And one thing which I really don't like about Bozen is, in spite of its geographical proximity to Italy, coffee costs twice as much as in other Italian cities, if not more. The price of a decent cup of espresso is about the same as inVienna. Maybe this is Sudtirol's way of showing the world where their affections lay?
Walterplatz in downtown Bozen is the place to see and to be seen. The top hotels and some of the most expensive bistros are all locate around the square. The town is surrounded by some foothills of the Alps on three sides, so no matter where you look up, you will see the Alps.
I must admit that Bozen, for whatsoever reasons, is not really a city to my liking, but it makes a good base if you want to explore the Dolomites. Their problem is, they are not as cosmopolitian as big cities in Austria, yet they are also not as creative or laid-back as in parts of northern Italy. As a friend of mine aptly puts it, people from Sudtirol have an identity crisis because they are not like the Catalans or the Basques in Spain, who strive to make their heritage genuinely unique from those of their dominant neightbours. So, in case you decide to visit Sudtirol, remember to leave your expectations at home and don't imagine you are heading to some kind of Italian paradise with Teutonic efficiency. Then, you might be positively surprised.
Copyrights@2010. All photos and text by YC Cheng. All Rights Reserved.
Unfortunately, Sudtirol is not quite what I had expected it to be. Instead of a region which combines all the advantages of Teutonic efficiency and sweet Italian dolce vita, it turns out that Sudtirol has managed to accomplish quite the opposite and ended up with the worst of both worlds: Teutonic aloofness (sometimes almost bordering on rudeness) and Italian efficiency.
As soon as I stepped out of Bolzano's train station, I thought I had already crossed the border into Austria. The streets, the cathedral, the atmosphere, the way houses and things are built and organized in Bozen are all so teutonic, there is almost nothing Italian about the whole town, except for the street signs with Italian names and the occasional splattering of Italians spoken on the street.
The problem with Sudtirol is, they are suffering from some kind of acute identity crisis. They refuse to be seen as Italian - fair enough, since I can imagine ten thousand reasons of not being wanted to be seen as Italian as well - but they are neither German nor Austrian too. In spite of their efforts to crave out their own cultural identity over the past 90 years, the population and the villages still seem to be at a loss about who they really are.
Italians who live in the area told me the Sudtirol population consider themselves Austrian, but if they really want to embrace this Austrian identity, surely they could have first started doing so by being more friendly and open towards foreign tourists? At least the people I met in Innsbruck are all quite friendly when it comes to dealing with foreign tourists.
Also, given that there are two universities in the region, and Bozen is the seat of the regional government, the city comes across as really backward when none of the hotels or cafes offer free wireless internet, even though hotel accommodations in Sudtirol are very expensive. To make things more complicated for people like me who rely on access to internet for their livelihoods, there is only one internet cafe in the entire city centre. Even when I offered to pay for going online at one of the top local hotels, they apologised for the lack of internet facilities altogether. Some friends consider this lack of modern communication infrastructures as the direct implication of the fact that more than 80% of visitors to Sudtirol are Old Age Pensioners from German-speaking countries aged 75 and above, who probably have no use for internet whilst on holidays.
The city centre of Bozen is very compact, you can get around by foot within an hour. The main square is Waltersplatz/Piazza Walter, as everything in Sudtirol is written in both German and Italian. Locals speak German with very heavy accent, and as they have very few visitors from outside of Europe's German-speaking countries, shops in Sudtirol do not offer VAT rebate for tourists from outside of the European Union. This really discourages me from shopping at Bozen, although I must say on the other hand there aren't really that many interesting shops around which are worth splashing the money.
Prices for eating out in Bozen are steep, in spite of the presence of hundreds of university students in the city. And one thing which I really don't like about Bozen is, in spite of its geographical proximity to Italy, coffee costs twice as much as in other Italian cities, if not more. The price of a decent cup of espresso is about the same as inVienna. Maybe this is Sudtirol's way of showing the world where their affections lay?
Walterplatz in downtown Bozen is the place to see and to be seen. The top hotels and some of the most expensive bistros are all locate around the square. The town is surrounded by some foothills of the Alps on three sides, so no matter where you look up, you will see the Alps.
I must admit that Bozen, for whatsoever reasons, is not really a city to my liking, but it makes a good base if you want to explore the Dolomites. Their problem is, they are not as cosmopolitian as big cities in Austria, yet they are also not as creative or laid-back as in parts of northern Italy. As a friend of mine aptly puts it, people from Sudtirol have an identity crisis because they are not like the Catalans or the Basques in Spain, who strive to make their heritage genuinely unique from those of their dominant neightbours. So, in case you decide to visit Sudtirol, remember to leave your expectations at home and don't imagine you are heading to some kind of Italian paradise with Teutonic efficiency. Then, you might be positively surprised.
Copyrights@2010. All photos and text by YC Cheng. All Rights Reserved.
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