Our first stop in Italy was a German mountain town – technically within the Italian borders, but it’s filled with lederhosen-wearing, hiking, German-speaking Germans. It used to be part of Germany, but Hitler gave the town to Mussolini as a gift. That was thoughtful. And such it was that this German town is now in Italy.
We were still with Vince’s parents, Aunt Ophelia, and family friends Sonny & Fe (who we also were in Munich with). We had a very relaxing stay at a mountain resort with wonderful food and long mountain hikes.
Tirol is a 4-hour drive from Munich. There were castles EVERYWHERE along the way, just along the roadside. There are about 400 castles in the region. Not exaggerating when I say that we saw a castle like this every mile or so.
This is a view of Tirol – it’s surrounded by vineyards & apple orchards… Beautiful!
We visited this castle, “Schloss Tirol,” built in 1138 (and added to over the next few centuries)-
Vince loves “all things castles,” so he was in heaven –
The castle had a great museum with stories of Tirol’s history and cool medieval artifacts – including this shield from the 1300’s
And this iron mask – I guess “The Man in the Iron Mask” isn’t entirely fictional. But Leo wasn't around that day, we looked.
Everywhere we hiked, we had one gorgeous view after another.
We did one organized hiking tour that included champagne tasting, and we walked through pastures that had horses and cows, right along our path – not fenced off in many places. Those are the snow-capped Dolomites in the background.
Germans love hiking. And beer. This being a German town with lots of German hikers, there is a restaurant at the top of every mountain – with soup, coffee, cake, and of course beer. This one is a pretty typical one, most of the houses, hotels, cafes & restaurants are in the Bavarian style.
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