We recently rented a car and headed to Italy for 11 days of food, art, medieval cities, wine, grappa, gelato, more food, more wine… you know, the kind of stuff you do in Italy.
Our goals were simple: we wanted a relaxed itinerary (not too much driving) and some new places. This second requirement led to a rather unconventional route – we skillfully slalomed around Bolzano, Bologna, Venice, Verona, and other popular destinations for smaller, less touristy towns in Trentino Alto Adige, Lombardy, Emilia Romagna, and Veneto. The only things we arranged in advance were some last-minute hotels and a few key dinner reservations.
Our very first stop was Bressanone (Brixen in German), one of the few familiar destinations on this trip. Bressanone makes for a perfect lunch stop on the drive from Munich to destinations further south.
This time we dined at Finsterwirt in the Hotel Adler: an elegant, old-timey place with modern dishes. We enjoyed variations on goat cheese (pictured), risotto with asparagus and bärlauch pesto, a trio of creme brûlée (rosemary, coffee, and strawberry).
Like many Italian towns in this part of the Dolomites, you’ll hear more German than Italian spoken by the locals. I was looking forward to getting farther south, where we’d be able to polish up our rusty Italian without being able to fall back on German.
Fortified by a tasty lunch, we pressed southward to find dinner.
This looks quite, quite delicious. I don’t know northern Italy at all, being based as I am down in the south, but I’m kind of getting a hankering to explore further afield this summer. Much the same as you I’d want to stay out of the German-speaking areas, but for a rather different reason – I haven’t spoken it since I was at school and don’t think I can remember anything further than ‘wo ist die bahnhof, bitte?’ Not altogether helpful day to day when you’re trying to find a good restaurant …
I stopped by Bressanone on a trip in 2008; my traveling companion and I were charmed by Northern Italy! Along with Bolzano, I have fond memories of this town and would love to go back.
As for the language divide, I still remember how my blonde friend was always greeted in German but I was greeted with Italian…