We took the train from Bressanone to Bolzano. It's all part of the same South Tyrol area which is all bilingual with Italian and German, hence the German name Bozen. In the case of Bolzano, it's about 70 percent German speaking. It was part of Austria for centuries until after World War I when it became part of Italy. Bolzano is the capital city of South Tyrol.

As we got off the train and started on our walk in Bolzano towards old town, we saw several interesting buildings. Interesting because of our guide who told us that they were from the Mussolini era and were considered fascist buildings. That meant that they appeared to be very strong and powerful buildings. At that point, I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy visiting Bolzano. I wasn't sure about the artwork either.

As we got to the city center and the Cathedral of St. Vigilio, built over 800 years ago, we ran into the army, or at least parts of several armies. It turned out that the soldiers were out to celebrate the end of World War One, when this area became part of Italy. Of the four different army groups, I liked the Mountain Troops the best as they had feathers in their caps (the guys on the right).

But from this point on, Bolzano was a great city to visit. It was a beautiful city full of history, architecture, culture, and scenery. Our next area to visit was, I believe, the Merano Market on the banks of the Passer River. I did have to be careful, however, as Vicky had "shopping eyes!"

We had one interesting stop before lunch time. We visited the Museum of Archeology. We were there to learn about Otzi, the Iceman. He is a 5,300 year-old ice-preserved mummy discovered near here in 1991. It was a fascinating story and a good museum but very crowded.

At lunch time, Vicky and I wandered off from our group, found a very long small alley and came out on the other side on a busy street full of restaurants. We found Paulaner Restaurant and ate lunch. I had spaghetti Carbonera and a Hacker beer while Vicky had a house salad with shrimp, tuna, cheese, etc. Vicky had an elder flower spritz to drink.

On most of my trips and in particular to less developed countries, I like to highlight their markets. I haven't done that with Switzerland and Northern Italy, but I will here. I wouldn't want anyone to think that this area of the world doesn't have great street food markets. This was our post-lunch Bolzano street food tour.

The first stop was just off the street, but one floor down. The dried meats were super enticing, to say the least. Yes, we did try some samples.

I especially liked the seasonal items like pomegranates, persimmons, and chestnuts, but everything looked good.