Greetings!
Today, we walked downtown and boarded the train to Bolzano, the capital city of the Province of South Tyrol. Bolzano is considered a bridge between Nothern Europe and Southern Europe due to the three spoken languages in South Tyrol (German, Italian, and Ladin., and the confluence of the Italian and German-Austrian culture. After arriving in Bolzano, we were delighted to meet our two local guides, one who identifies as Italian, and the other as German. They provided us with the history of South Tyrol, and made clear Mussolini's actions in the period from 1922 to 1942 to "Italianize" the German population.
Francesco led us on a walk from the train station to the central area of Bolzano. The streets were for the most part very easy for pedestrians, and shops were easily accessible. The architecture reflected a more German design than we have found previously, as did the interior of the
Gothic Cathedral Church which functions as the Duomo. Begun in 1184, it was re-constructed twice before being completed in the 16th century.
Most of us spent the bulk of the day at the
South Tyrol Museum of Archeology. It houses
Otzi, the 5300 year old Ice Man, found high in the Dolomite Alps near here in 1991. The materials displayed in the three full floors are extremely well-presented, and the story of Otzi reveals an enormous amount about life in the period when the Copper age Europeans struggled to exist. It has been deduced that he was a high altitude shepherd, and that his diet consisted of goat and deer meat. A wide range of herbs and grasses containing early medicines were found on him, and it is thought he might have been a shaman.
He wore a cloak made of woven grass, and a coat, a belt, a pair of leggings, a loincloth, and shoes, all made of leather of different skins. He also wore a bearskin cap, with a leather chin strap. the shoes were waterproof and wide, seemingly for walking across the snow. They were constructed using bearskin for the soles, deer hide for the top panels, and a netting made of tree bark. Soft grass went around the foot and in the shoe, and functioned like modern socks.
No comments:
Post a Comment