Page 15 - Dispatches - June 2022

Though many villages appear to be from the it feels more like Austria in many ways than it Smart Travels with
pages of a storybook, South Tyrol wasn’t does Italy. It was only about a century ago that Rudy Maxa: Genoa
always a tranquil mountain paradise. As Italy annexed the region, claiming control of & the Italian Riviera
the favored corridor between northern and the Southern Alps following World War I.
southern Europe, South Tyrol saw thousands
of years of battles and conflicts unfold in its After the annexation, Benito Mussolini
backyard. Roman legions, Germanic tribes, was determined to eradicate German and
and medieval crusaders all held claim on Austrian culture and Italianize the area.
the valleys at some point. There are 800 Despite German speakers outnumbering
castles and ruins to show for it—a higher Italian speakers by nearly 10 to 1, German
concentration than anywhere else in Europe. was forbidden in schools, courts, and public Trace Italy’s Ligurian
offices. Towns and even some people were coast with travel
All you have to do is look up, and you’ll find forced to adopt Italian names while German expert Rudy Maxa,
storybook citadels to explore. Perhaps the inscriptions were chipped away from and discover the best
most historically significant is Tyrol Castle tombstones. of the Riviera.
which sits high above the town of Merano. It
served as the residence to the Counts of Tyrol Tensions further increased in 1939 when Watch Video
until 1363 and continues to serve as a symbol Mussolini and Hitler agreed to give German
for the region—in fact, Tyrol got its name from speakers a choice—stay in South Tyrol
this imposing fortress. and fully integrate into Italian culture and
language or give up their ancestral homeland
Italian, Austrian, or Ladin? and emigrate to the German Reich. While this
agreement was only partially upheld once the
South Tyrol spent the majority of the last war was in full swing, it left behind a painful
millennium under the German-speaking rule legacy. Nearly 75,000 people left for Germany,
of Austria’s Habsburg Dynasty. Because of this,
and those who stayed behind were branded as

Signs in South Tyrol
often include three
languages: Italian,
German, and Ladin.

Left: From
challenging hikes
to leisurely strolls,
South Tyrol’s
mountains and
valleys offer quite the
scenic backdrop.

DISPATCHES • WINTER 2022 15

4040_Dispatches_June2022.indd 15 5/26/22 6:19 PM