Südtirol is bilingual and bicultural – both German (Austrian) and Italian. It is amazing how effortlessly most people here go back and forth between the two languages. Occasionally, there may be a faint Italian lilt in someone’s otherwise perfect and absolutely flawless German, making me think that perhaps Italian is his native language, but the ease with which most people here speak both languages is stunning. 

Everything, all signs, street names, signs on doors, announcements, etc. are in both German and Italian, usually German first. Mark and I have been wondering how people here feel about this biculturality. Do they – inside, where the tourists don’t see – fiercely belong to one culture, patriotically defending their heritage? Do they frown upon the other? Do they flock together with only people from their own heritage? Also: how do they do subtitles in movies??

One thing that’s both Austrian and Italian is the abundance of signs that people here are predominantly Catholic – there are churches, of course, but also all sorts of shrines and crosses, both inside houses and on the outside, and out in nature, along walking trails. 

Mark asked, the first night we were here in Bressanone – as evening church bells and a thunderstorm coincided – whether bells here were used to warn people of severe weather. The question, surprisingly, surprised me: the only “severe” weather here would be a thunderstorm or a snowstorm, and those you can usually see approach, so there’s not much need to warn people.