Enchanted South Tyrol

South Tyrol, with its breathtaking landscapes, its colourful traditional houses, its enveloping and unspoilt nature and its little villages where life flows calmly, is certainly a world apart, a small treasure chest made of mountains and valleys of green velvet that wraps around and guards little jewel villages, perfect in their harmonious architecture and perfectly set within the varied and imposing Alps. Millions of years ago these mountains of granite rock lay beneath the sea that shaped and eroded them, leaving traces of marine life in perfectly preserved fossils, before the sea withdrew far away at the foot of the sandy coasts. To see the soaring rocky peaks up close you have to go up high, by cable car and gondola, to an altitude of 1,500-2,000 m.

The group of Alpine mountains above Bressanone is called Plose and is reached by gondola from the hamlet of S.Andrea; from Ortisei, on the other hand, you reach the Alpe di Siusi, where in winter kilometres of ski slopes wind along, famous among fans of the sport. In summer it is all a celebration of green, pure air, flowers and crystal-clear streams that give us a paradise-like calm that refreshes the spirit and the mind. Impeccable as always is the care of the places, which South Tyroleans care about particularly. Deep down, South Tyrol is so little Italian, even in its language: here the first language is German, the second Italian, and it is clear that in customs, lifestyle and habits the South Tyrolean people are much closer to Austria than to Italy.

If you love art, nature, cleanliness, tidiness and tranquillity, visit these enchanted, fairy-tale places that will never stop winning you over and stand as a virtuous example of intelligent tourism.