Today we slept in and then headed to Bolzano, Italy. I am now convinced that we could make it to Italy in a Flash if there were no Mountain Roads. The roads are so curvy and our Mini Van just doesn’t cut it like those European Sports Cars. The very first thing we noticed were the vineyards and the apple orchards. Italy is stereotypically known for its wine, and now we understand why. This country must produce 90% of the worlds’ grapes and apples, because we saw miles upon miles upon miles of nothing else. There were a few castles along the way too, which was fun to look at from a distance, but Camden was quick to point out that we have seen “a gazillion castles” so we opted to continue on to our destination without stopping. We arrived in Bolzano having only one destination in mind, but an empty stomach, so we pulled off at a not so touristy place and not one person spoke English or German and so with a lot of pointing and smiling we wound up with our first true Italian meal in Italy (Pizza of course :-). After our Grazi’s were said (Grazi is thank you in Italian) we were off to see Otzi – the reason for coming to Bolzano in the first place. In 1991, hikers from Nuremburg (right near Bamberg) were hiking in a desolate glacial area on the Austria/Italian border and came upon the remains of a body. The quick version of the story is that this body turned out to have been frozen for 5300 years!!!!That is over 3000 years before Christ!!!! They were able to preserve his body and it is on display (along with the possessions found near him) and he has been kept frozen. It was absolutely amazing to stand before this body. He is nicknamed Otzi, and the only disappointment was that we weren’t able to take any pictures - in order to keep the perfect preservation of his body – in fact we had to look through a glass window to see him. He is the oldest human body ever found in the entire world – quite amazing!! I couldn't resist the picture of the grapes - I have seen many Vineyards from a distance, but never up close!
1 comment:
Beautiful pictures of the country side and of all of you. All of you look GREAT and very HAPPY. Glad you had good time! This vacation will always be remembered. We laughed about the ice cream being the same color as the kids shirts. Love, M & D
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