Bolzano, Italy

I have been very bad about blogging about some of the places we've been. For some unknown reason, our internet is working well today, so I thought I would do a post.

In early December (I told you I'd been negligent) Scott went on a three day temple trip with the youth in the stake. So Robert and I took the opportunity to do something I had really wanted to do - go to a Christmas Market. Ideally, I would have liked to have gone to a Market in Germany, but we didn't have time to go to Germany. One of Robert's co-workers told us about the Christmas Market in Bolzano, Italy. Bolzano is a town not too far from the Austrian border. The town has a heavy German/Austrian influence, so their Market is more like a traditional German Christmas Market.

We drove to Bolzano on a Friday and checked into our hotel - the Hotel Post Gries. I didn't take a picture of the hotel, but here's a picture from our window. Sadly, the weather was gloomy like that the whole time we were there.

Friday evening we went to the Market. May I just say, it was AMAZING! It was everything I had hoped it would be. Such shopping! Christmas goodies - including ornaments galore and beautiful table runners - abounded. We also found some fun figurines. And I picked up two nativities - one carved out of half of a piece of wood and another featuring Mary and Joseph in traditional German clothing. I love them so much, they are still out on my shelf! We had a great time wandering around all the stalls, looking at all of the fun things for sale. Sadly, my camera takes horrible nighttime pictures (although it could be the operator and not the camera) so my pictures of the Market itself didn't turn out.

We stopped at one stall for hot chocolate. It was strange to be given my hot chocolate in an actual ceramic mug. I didn't really like that though - I wanted to wander around with my hot chocolate (since it was bitterly cold), but instead we had to drink it at their stall. That seems to be typical in this country. I'm not a big fan of the hot chocolate I've had here. It's not sweet like our hot chocolate. And sometimes it's so thick that it would be better used as an ice cream topping!

To top off our evening at the Market, we rode in a horse and wagon. It was a fun way to see some of the sites of Bolzano.

The next morning, we went back to the city center to take some pictures of the beautiful church we saw.

I also had to take a few pictures of these guys, who lined the sidewalk in front of the church. We never did find out who they were and what they symbolized. And why they had no arms.
We also took the time to go to the Museum of Archaeology to see Oetzi, the 5300-year-old man. Here he is in all his splendor.
Oetzi is Europe's oldest naturally preserved mummy. He was found by hikers in 1991. He was originally thought to be found in Austria, but it was later determined he was just inside the Italian border. Austria's loss was Bolzano's gain! It was fascinating to go through the museum and discover how much they had learned from Oetzi and the clothing and other artifacts found with him. Robert didn't want to go see Oetzi, but he ended up being very glad I made him go.

I'm so glad we made it to the Bolzano Christmas Market. And even though we couldn't make it to one in Germany, I think we experienced the true flavor of a Christmas Market.