[ Oct.2014 ] The South Tyrol belongs to Italy, but not only the view but also the culture is very German.
The master of the festival on the stage spoke first in German and then in Italian.
And his Italian had a lot of mistakes apparently.
At the hotel, too, only a couple of staff could talk in Italian.
People’s clothes were also German, or more precisely Bavarian.
I saw many people wearing Lederhosen.
I looked up and found that in this area 60% of local people speak German as their mother tongue and Italian speakers are only 25%.
When Italy united in 1861, this area was not included but in 1919 after the WW1, it became a part of Italy.
During WW2 the movement of partisans against Nazis was very active here, but after the war, they wanted to belong to Austria and some acts of terrorism happened.
According to an Italian person who visited here about 30 years ago, a shop keeper who could understand Italian talked to him only in German.
Now it seemed politically calm as their right of autonomy expanded.
Everywhere at the border in Europe, there are many interesting background stories.
