Sauerkraut — and yodlers as well — in Italy’s Kastelruth

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The German-speaking Italian city of Castelrotto — known as “Kastelruth” by its German-speaking residents — lies tucked away within the Dolomites, the Alps of northeastern Italy. It’s my favourite hideaway in South Tyrol, a area of Italy that offers guests a powerful sprint of Germanic tradition.

Kastelruth is the best house base for exploring the Dolomites — Italy’s ski nation in winter, and climbing wonderland in summer season. Although this city was constructed for farmers, not vacationers, it has good bus connections, nice and pleasant accommodations, and extra village character than any city round.

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With its traffic-free heart, a thousand years of historical past, an outsized and hyperactive bell tower, and historically clad locals, it appears of one other world.

Throughout a visit via Italy, I take pleasure in a break from pizza and pasta. Wurst and sauerkraut are Tirolean clichés — extra adventurous eaters search out Speck, a uncooked, prosciutto-style ham smoked for 5 months, then thinly sliced and served as an antipasto or in sandwiches. Giant dumplings — with bits of Speck, liver, spinach, or cheese — are sometimes served in sauce, or with butter and cheese. (By no means minimize a dumpling with a knife. My associates right here inform me, “It’ll destroy the chef.”) For dessert, strudel is in all places, full of the area’s famend apples.

Tiny Kastelruth places its central sq. to good use, with a busy farmers market on summer season Fridays and a clothes and craft market on most Thursdays. Should you’re on the sq. on a weekday afternoon, you may even see native mothers gathering their preschoolers, chatting, then heading en masse down the road to the playground. And earlier than and after Sunday Mass, the sq. is crowded with villagers and farmers of their conventional clothes.

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At 250 ft excessive, Kastelruth’s bell tower — the tallest within the area — dominates the city. If you really feel the pleasure locals have of their tower, an emblem of their city, you’ll higher perceive why Italy is named “the land of a thousand bell towers.”

The bells of Kastelruth are a giant a part of the city expertise, ringing on the hour from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Whereas sleepy vacationers marvel why they clang so early within the morning, locals — who grew up with the chimes — discover them comforting.

The bells mark the hours, summon individuals to Mass, announce festivals, and warn when storms threaten. Within the days when individuals used to imagine that thunder was the satan approaching, the bells known as everybody to hope. (Townspeople as soon as thought the sound of the bells cleared the clouds.)

One other image of Kastelruth is its carved witches — people figures that date again to when this space was the Salem of this nook of Europe. Ladies thought-about in some way threatening — together with many midwives, healers, and redheads — had been typically tried and burned as witches.

Nowadays, the area is most well-known for its contribution to the world of oompah music. The people-singing group Kastelruther Spatzen — the ABBA of the Alps — is a gang of native boys who put Kastelruth on the map within the Nineteen Eighties. They’ve an enormous following right here and all through the German-speaking world.

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The group’s feel-good folk-pop type — an alpine model of German Schlager music — is common with the form of conservative, working-class German audio system who wish to trip in South Tirol. In mid-October, the city is packed for Kastelruther Spatzenfest — when the band places on a hometown live performance.

One avenue over from the principle sq. is the Kastelruther Spatzen store, which features a folksy little museum slathered with items, awards, and gold data.

To avoid wasting a bit cash, I take pleasure in a picnic on the balcony of my room. The menu tonight: tough, bakery-fresh Austrian-style bread, salami, carrots, a bath of yogurt, and Apfelsaft (apple juice). I discover that the whole lot’s in two languages right here — my yogurt is each frutti di bosco and Waldfruchte…that’s “berries of the forest.” The truth that my feast value lower than €10 makes it style even higher.

With a contented soundtrack of German-speaking Italian kids taking part in simply out of sight, I watch a sluggish present as darkness settles on the Dolomites. Progressively the rugged limestone peaks that encompass me grow to be monotone, then gone.

This text is used with the permission of Rick Steves’ Europe (www.ricksteves.com). Rick Steves writes European guidebooks, hosts journey exhibits on public TV and radio, and organizes European excursions.

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