On our way through South-Tyrol we couldn’t miss the most famous location: Merano.
Our last day we spent right in this little city sightseeing the also famous Schloss Trauttmansdorff and the city center which is located at the shores of the river Passer. The town is known as a spa resort and became famous in the last centuries due to notable people coming here: empress Elisabeth of Austria, Kafka, Ezra Pound and many more. Goethe of course came here as well in earlier times. They all loved the mild climate and the mountain landscape with the Mediterranean flair.
The place is inhabited for more than 5.000 years but became permanently used as a road station under the Roman Empire.
Only in the 13th century the counts of Tyrol elevated Mairania to the status of a city and made it their capital. Much later it was ruled by the Habsburg dynasty. Shortly Napoleon was here and after the WW I it became Italian.
Though the surroundings of Merano are pretty ‘German’ in language, tradition, architecture and more Merano to us seemed much more Italian and international in all that.
We parked our car in a park house right in the center of the city near to the Terme Merano. We took a walk into the city center crossing the river Passer which gave us a great view along its wild flowing waters. We saw some people doing kayaking.
In the city center there was the festival ‘Street Art’ with a lot of artists in the piazzas. Paintings on the grounds, jugglers, clowns, dancers… the crowd watching the artists was multicultural from all over the world. But I heard mainly Italian words.
We walked along the river on the Passer promenade, under shady trees. The houses are beautiful here and I imagine that living right here along the river will be pretty expensive.. but beautiful.
Getting hungry we stopped at a very German style Biergarten with German food – the right one for my better half. The place was a little hidden so we could eat without all the buzz of the many people coming here for the festival.
It was a very short visit and definitely I want to come back and explore the city a little bit more. It has so many interesting sights and also walks along the river and into the surrounding country. But we had to leave as we still had to find a place for the night. Merano, we will be back!
Merano, South-Tyrol/Italy:
For further information:
Official website of Tirol
