Monday, December 14, 2015

Bolzano Christmas Market & Archaeology Museum

Christmas markets are a thing in Europe, particularly in Germany and Austria, but Italy is known for having some great ones as well. Last year, due to a crazy combination of timing, school, Tony's work schedule, and our awesome vacation to Malta, we completely missed out on this entire phenomenon. First world problems, I know. This meant it was very high on my list this year. I thought I'd have more time, but it has a way of slipping away from me these days. Fortunately, we were able to jump on a group trip with Lucas (of Cooking With Lucas fame) and head to Bolzano - the largest and most famous Christmas market in Italy!

Mercatino di Natale, Bolzano Italy
In Italian, a Christmas market is a Mercatino di Natale. I learned that in Bolzano, in the Dolomites of the South Tyrol Province South of Austria, Germany is one of the official languages. It still trips me up to see signs in anything other than English, but as you venture closer to other countries or apparently, provinces with secondary languages, it's even stranger to see multilingual signs. My brain is getting very full of important words like gelato and formaggio, but I managed to make room for another phrase: Christkindlmärkte. Just don't ask me to pronounce it. I know another phrase but hadn't been able to put it to use yet: vin brûlé. That is Italian for mulled wine! (In German: gluhwein.) Never fear, I have now partaken of both the red and white varieties in an official setting! With a bonus tasting of hot apple cider with rum. Yum yum yum.  

Pretzel, speck, & cheese sandwich + Gluhwein

Man, I got started talking about food and drinks and totally distracted myself from where I was going in my story. I think I jumped ahead of myself a bit. Anyway, it took us a little more than two hours to get to Bolzano. I drowsed a bit on the bus, which isn't really surprising since I had nightmares the night before and also took two Benadrylls before we hit the road; better to sleep than have motion sickness! Plus, I have a sore ear and I thought the allergy medication might help relieve some of the pressure. Anyway, the drive seemed easy. I woke up somewhere East of Lake Garda (and recognized exactly where we were, BECAUSE I AM AN AWESOME ADVENTURER!) just in time to see a fantastic monastery built into the hillside. I expected the drive to be a very twisty-curvy one, with lots of up and downs, but it was all highway and pretty straight shooting. Our bus driver did an expert job backing the bus into a spot in a parking garage, and we set off in the freezing cold -2 degree weather (okay, fine, -2 degrees Celsius, but still) to find the Christmas market. We parked about five blocks away and just followed the crowd. The idea was to go to a microbrewery for lunch, but it ended up being really crowded so we settled for street food instead.First order of business: red vin brûlé and a pretzel sammich with cheese and speck. FYI: Speck is a cured meat similar to bacon or prosciutto, and is native to the Tyrol region. That was a darn good pretzel, the best I've had since Oktoberfest in Munich! (Dang. Please don't think I'm an asshole just for having some awesome adventures. After all, I had to wait fourteen months (and one really bad gas station quality pretzel) before experiencing pretzel bliss again.) Next up: that necessary evil, a public bathroom. Surprisingly, for the low price of 70 Euro cents, I went through a turnstile and marched right up to a clean, empty stall, and then washed my hands with soap and hot water. A+, Bolzano, top marks for bathroom quality. 

That right there is a nice steamy mug of gluhwein!

Miniature Train (Photo Credit: http://www.bolzano.net)
After that, we wandered around. The main event happens in Piazza Walther, anchored by the 14th century Assumption of Our Lady Cathedral, with smaller clumps of vendors in other piazzas and scattered throughout the streets of town. It was fairly crowded despite the chill, and it's a great place to people-watch even if you don't feel like buying anything. We saw lots of Christmas ornaments, from hand-carved and laser-cut wooden ones to delicate tatted lace to hand-painted bulbs. There were linens, candles, and lots of local meats and cheeses. We saw kids riding a miniature train - and miniature ponies! I think the horse owners as well as parents are very trusting; the parent would pay, some adult would help the kid onto the pony, and the owner would hand the reins over to the parents for a few minutes and the parent would then guide the animal up and down the street. Everywhere we went, you could find artisan bread and pretzels and sweets, plus did I mention the vin brûlé?! One of my friends had a white hot chocolate that looked delicious, and he said it was amazingly creamy in texture and just the right amount of sweet. I didn't partake of any hot chocolate, white or otherwise, but I did sample some delicious hand rolled truffles. Okay fine, I did more than sample. I gobbled up a traditional dark chocolate (fondente) and a coffee-flavored one, and Mr. Moneybags Husband was paying since I left my cash at home, and he bought two of each so we wouldn't even have to share! I'm pretty sure that's a testament to his generosity, and not selfishness of wanting his own truffle...We saw lots of vendors roasting chestnuts, and smelled some heavenly combination of cinnamon and vanilla and maybe nutmeg? that meant there were candied nuts for sale, too. There were gingerbread and sacher torts, too. Sacher torts are an Austrian chocolate cake with apricot jam or preserves, topped with dark chocolate frosting or ganache, and you can find them all over the Alps. In addition to the Christmas theme, we also saw some vendors with more common goods you'd see in any Italian outdoor market, namely fresh fruits, vegetables, and flowers. 

Hand-painted Ornament (Photo Credit: http://www.bolzano.net)
We already did our Christmas shopping for this year, and didn't really see anything that called to us for ourselves or for next year's gifts, so after some browsing (and some more of that delicious wine stuff) we proceeded to the South Tyrol Archaeology Museum. This museum was created specifically to house a pretty fantastic archaeological find: Ötzi – the Iceman. Otzi was discovered in 1991 and it turns out he lived about 5,000 years ago, sometime in between 3350 and 3100 BCE. The museum was very interesting and respectful, and the body is preserved in a special Han Solo cryogenic chamber - very cold, very humid, minus Han Solo - with a little window for viewing. You can read and hear all about the discovery and recovery, as well as view artifacts like his leggings, bearskin cap, and dagger. He also had specially made ember bags and tools. You can't see it, but you can hear all about the food remnants found in his stomach and intestines and cereal grains caught in the fibers of his clothing and pouches. And guess what: Otzi has 61 tattoos! They are positioned to correspond with modern acupuncture lines and were pretty certainly associated with some sort of therapeutic treatment. Brown-eyed Otzi had wavy, shoulder-length brown hair and a beard, was an inch shorter than me with the same size feet, probably weighed less than I do, and died when he was about 45 years old. There is an incredible life-size reproduction/recreation of what Otzi probably looked like, based on all sorts of fancy technology that I'm too ignorant to understand, much less sum up in a blog post. In short: it's way cool. 

Otzi the Iceman (Photo Credit: www.wync.org)
Otzi is important for many reasons; his was the first archaeological dig on a glacier, and as a result of his recovery and radiocarbon-dating methods, the timing of the Copper Age was revised by a thousand years, indicating it started much earlier than we previously thought. Otzi is also special because of the way he was preserved - naturally, in ice, rather than through artificial means or in peat. That means all of the organic materials haven't really been interfered with over time. Also, scientists and archaeologists didn't recognize signs at the initial time of recovery, but due to the nature of wounds, they were able to narrow down his cause of death somewhat. He was discovered on a known traverse/trade route. He had an arrowhead buried in his shoulder, which led to a big blood loss, fractures on his face and skull that occurred within 24 hours of his death, a significant gash on his hand indicating hand-to-hand combat, and a dislocated shoulder. Speculation is that he had some sort of an incident (perhaps a fight?) the day before he died and then went to an area where he felt safe. At some point, he ate a meal, and then within an hour of eating was shot with the arrow and died. The dislocated shoulder could have happened during that fall, or if he tried to rip the arrow from his own body (scientifically plausible). The arrowhead was found, but no remnants of the actual arrow itself, so somebody tried to pull it out at some point. Then, after he died, he must have been covered with snow and then ice very quickly, otherwise the elements and animals might have interfered with his preservation.

Whoa. So, um, yeah. Sorry to get all gruesome in the middle of a happy Christmas post. But it was fascinating!

Chocolate, Nut, & Marzipan Vendors at the Bolzano Christmas Market


My favorite alley of decorations! Giant pretzels!
Anyway, after we visited the museum, we did a few cloverleaf loops through the city and visited some of the smaller piazzas, one of which was specifically devoted to artisans. That square had wooden games, jewelry, felted wool clothes & ornaments, glassware, and all sorts of other cool handmade stuff. The town of Bolzano also has plenty of non-Christmas shopping available, everything from H&M and Aldo and Sephora to Armani and hand-cobbled shoes. I was quite impressed with the decorations around the entire city. Each street had hanging decorations, either lights or ornaments or some such. I saw innertubes twisted and painted like pretzels, bouncy balls painted like ornaments, singing angels, whispy white paper swirls, and lots of red and gold. Many of the trees were decorated with lights and ornaments too, including one giant potted olive tree with red boxes hung throughout. Even buildings were decked out with lights and 3D ornaments on the walls. All afternoon we were pleasantly taunted (if such a phrase isn't an oxymoron) by whispers of live brass music. It was hard to pin down a location or even a direction for the music, but we finally found it coming from a third-story balcony. The song they were playing when we honed in on the band? Feliz Navidad. Because of course.

Hopfen & Co. Brewery. Go there.
Around 3pm, we made our way to the Bozner Bier Hopfen & Co Brewery. It's in an 800-year old building and features Tyrolean and Italian cuisine, plus of course beer! (Birra in Italian, Bier in German, see why my brain is so fulllll?) Still stuffed from my pretzel sandwich, I settled for a radler and an endive salad with black olives, sundried tomatoes, and goat cheese. I was not disappointed. Tony went for a dark beer, a dunkel, and goulash with bacon beer dumplings. He loved the lager, which even I enjoyed despite not generally being a fan of dark beers, and REALLY liked the goulash. The bacon beer dumplings were a little heavy, though tasty. We sat and visited with a few of our friends, and then we split the vanilla gelato with hot raspberry sauce. And the angels rejoiced. I don't know what kind of witchcraft went into the creation of that ice cream or the sauce, but it was amazing! If I ever go back to Bolzano, I would eat there again in a heartbeat.

We spent a few final minutes meandering through town as we made our way back to the bus, snapping pictures and purchasing our truffles, and then headed home. I hereby deem our first Christmas market outing a tremendous success!
Yummy, yummy chocolate! Bonus tidbit: 'Chiave' is Italian for 'key'

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Catch-Up

Oh noooooo, I fell off the blogging wagon! It's not New Year's, so I'm not calling this a resolution, but I would like to get back on track. Sometimes that first step is the hardest, so for today I'm just jotting down a list (bullets: a blogger's lazy tool) of topics I'd like to backfill, plus a couple of upcoming events & outings I want to hit on as well.

a) Halloween Party & Costumes
b) Thanksgiving/Tuscany
c) Venice Hotel & Shopping
d) Work
e) Holiday Plans
f) Bolzano Christmas Market
g) Haircut
h) Books I've Read in the 2nd half of 2015
i) Mom visiting Italy - probably multiple posts!

Also, I rode my bike to work today. This is technically the first time I've done that, though I've ridden my bike to the base several times before. Funnily enough, I didn't really plan to bike to work. Originally I thought I would bike in today, and then leave the bike at work and have my husband pick me up so we could go grocery shopping together and I wouldn't have to bike home in the dark. Then I would ride the bus to work in the morning and bike home when I finish work at 1300. But I worked out at home this morning and was generally feeling a little lazy, so I decided to ride the bus. Generally the bus passes my house going in the direction of work at 17 minutes past the hour and at 47 minutes past the hour. To start work on the hour, I need to catch the xx17 bus. Since it's Italy, I always check the bus schedule before I leave though, just to make sure. Usually the buses are pretty reliable, but you never know. And sometimes they change it up seasonally or there's a random Italian holiday or something else impacting the schedule. And I don't know if it's because today is a holiday (Feast of the Immaculate Conception) or just because it was close to when things shut down for lunch and riposo, but sure enough, there wasn't a bus at a convenient time for me. And I couldn't even catch an early one and hang out on the base before hand, since I waited a few minutes too long to catch the schedule! Argh! As my Grampa says, "It's alright, as long as you say 'oops.'" OOPS. So, back to Plan A. I quickly changed clothes & shoes, added work attire to my backpack, pumped up my bike tires, and hit the road. I think it's about 4.5 miles to work, but I've never really verified that. Anyway, I checked my watch at 1211, before I pumped up the tires, and then I checked it again when I got to work and took off my helmet in my office, at 1235. I think I made great time!

And now I need a nap.