europe un(lish)ed: Maybe it won't rain on us this weekend?

Think again. It rained.

As a follow up to our weekend visiting Christine and David in Berchtesgaden (see previous post), we took their excellent advice and went on a quick weekend trip to South Tyrol, Italy. The beauty of South Tyrol is hard to beat and hard to describe. It is a series of towns along a winding valley with almost every acre of land terraced for vineyards or apple orchards and surrounded by the Dolomites on all sides. We were a bit tired from traveling weekend after weekend, so we decided to stay in on Friday night and then leave for South Tyrol early on Saturday morning. After a few hour drive that took us through Austria and over a mountain pass, we arrived in South Tyrol around 11am. And what else would we do at 11 AM? Wine tasting of course. I found a quaint family owned winery through my Google efforts which led me to a random Brit's foodie blog. Weingut Hans Rottensteiner was run by an older gentleman who must have been one of the owners, because his picture was all over their pamphlets and wine guides. He didn't speak an ounce of English, but gave us many free tastings. Although we did slightly feel obligated to buy just based on his generosity, we wanted to buy a couple of bottles because they were so tasty! We even walked out of there with Ryan's pride and joy - a magnum bottle.

After wine tasting, we drove to downtown Bozen/Bolzano (another fun fact: this area used to be an Austro-Hungarian territory until WWI, when this primarily German-speaking territory was annexed by Italy and now they speak and use both languages).

Bolzano (the Italian name), is home to a really fascinating artifact and archaeology museum. In 1991, a body was found in the Dolomites covered in ice, whom they now refer to as Otzi, or Frozen Fritz. After a semi-botched recovery of his body and much research, it was determined that this man is over 5,000 years old and lived sometime between 3350 and 3100 B.C.! His body, clothing, weapons, tools, and other artifacts are on display at this museum. Yes, I said his actual body! He is kept in a giant freezer type room where you can view him through a window. He and his belongings were so well preserved in the ice, you can still see his skin, tattoos, nails, teeth, and they could even tell what his last meal was which was still in his stomach (an early form of wheat-porridge)! He and his belongings were so much more advanced and sophisticated than previously thought that he alone changed anthropologists timeline of human history by over a thousand years! I could go on forever (Whitney had to sit through a long story telling session in person already) because I get so excited just thinking about it, but I will end with a declaration that I thought this was one of the more fascinating two hours I've spent in a museum in my life. We weren't allowed to take pictures but here is one that I stole from the museum's website.

This does not even do it justice!

After the museum, we continued our whirlwind trip and hit the mountains for a hike. We took a gondola up the mountain and stopped for lunch (and to hide from the rain) in an Alm. The Alm was recommended by Christine and David and was well worth the trip. They served a delicious wild mushroom lasagna covered in wildflowers!