I kept having to remind myself, during my trip to the twin cultural hotspots of Bolzano and Toblach, which country I was in. Both, in fact, are in Italy, though the Austrian border lies close by. Not that you’d know from the language (primarily German) or the cuisine (hearty).
It’s more helpful to think of the region as South Tyrol, a rugged land of scree-sloped mountain peaks and, it turns out, a thriving classical music scene. The
