Italy and South Tyrol

I have been learning a lot over the past few days, and I'm going to share some of it with you.  Here is some ammunition for you quiz masters!  I have crossed the border into Italy at a place called the Reschen Pass ( Resia in Italian) and am now in the South Tyrol.

Somewhere I have been in the last week I read about how the Tyrolean folk have been divided through political boundaries (and I guess, war), and that they feel very strongly that they should be an autonomous region like they once were.  In this respect I am reminded of the Basque region which also straddles two countries.  It is quite interesting because, until early last century the South Tyrol belonged to Austria.  The allies signed some agreement that gave it to Italy ( quite why they stuck their nose in I am not sure), and then because of Mussolini and Hitler and further decrees there was a massed, forced migration until after the second world war.  Then in amongst all of that, there was what amounted to slave labour, when children from large families marched to Swabia and worked for farmers there before returning home for the winter.  It would have been a tough life, and I guess the people did whatever they could to survive.

Now, the South Tyrol (I was in the West Tyrol 7kms away before crossing the border).  I haven't seen much of this area yet, but on a very cold, wet afternoon I have been browsing through some of the information I picked up at the tourist office.  When I arrived here in Reschen (Resia) the mountains nearby were trying to fight, unsuccessfully, the mist that was trying to settle on their peaks.  The mist has lifted, and they are now snow covered peaks!  It is like someone made a pointy cake and put thick icing on the top, with some drizzling down the sides.  I can't show you any pictures, because the white snow caps just blended into the white cloudy sky! A large part of the South Tyrol is over 3,400 foot high and here at Reschen the altitude is almost 5,000 feet (1,520 metres) high.

 Only about 3% of the South Tyrol is settled, and there are over 300 peaks over 3,000 metres high.  Much of the region is rock, though there is an awful lot of it forested too, and of course, above the tree line there will be pasture as well.  Interestingly the Dolomite mountain range falls in this region too, but more of that later.

 Schloss Nauders.  Unfortunately this was not open for me to visit.  The high vis vests (bottom right) were a family (2 adults, 2 children) who had obviously just ridden over the pass, 7 kms away.

Nauders.  I saw a wonderful physio here in this village who has worked wonders - an hour of massage, ultra sound and strapping. Not fixed, but getting there!

I have noticed quite a bit of wood carving lately, and this Shepherd with his sheep was just one carved panel on a church door.

 Part of the village of Graun, and Reschen, were drowned back in the fifties for this man made lake.  85 families were displaced, and the churches from both villages were drowned and new ones built.  This church tower stands as a permanent reminder of those earlier times at Graun.