Alto Adige...best part of Italy!!!

My family and I went on a trip through the Alto Adige in summer '06. The Alto Adige, or South Tirol, is the northernmost part of ITALY that used to be (in) Austria. It is lovely country with apple orchards and vineyards wherever you look. Traveling to this part of the world is really worth it for many reasons, one of which is the following.

* The first museum experience we had was in Bolzano/Bozen (all the place names have to be in both Italian and German!), where we went to the OTZI MUSEUM, which houses the prehistoric "Iceman" and a fascinating anthropological exhibition about the life and times of this unique exhibit.

* On our way from Bolzano to the Passo Resia/Reschenpass, on the hill to the right we saw a huge medieval fortress, CASTEL COIRA/CHURBURG, and decided to have a look at it.

We were lucky in that a guided tour in English was available right away, and so we saw an amazing collection of treasures, the most notable being the world's most important private armory, which included the "personal wardrobe" of the Counts of Matsch and von Trapp as well as the armor that was used by their private armies. Even Leonardo da Vinci was once employed for Gaudenz Vogt von Matsch!

Both of these museums kept our children interested, which, as you can imagine, is a vital aspect of family travel!

I do hope you will have a chance to go to Alto Adige some day. There are so many wonderful things to see!