Christmas Market Madness: Italy (Bolzano/Bolzen)

Northern Italy’s proximity means it’s not such a big adjustment to visit. In fact, the town I visited is listed everywhere as Bolzano (Italian name) / Bozen (German name), with businesses and city institutions (even the fire department) labeled in both languages.

Getting there: 4 hours out (including 4 stops), 3.5 hours back (direct), FlixBus. I walked the 10 minutes to and from the market.

The market: Bolzano is advertised as the largest Christmas market in Italy. While it is a good size, it doesn’t rival large German markets.

In the short walk from the bus drop-off, I saw a heavily-armed presence on the streets leading up to the market, but officers were not patrolling within the market area like they had in Strasbourg.

Which was great, because the setup was lovely, like a miniature wooden village--complete with small railroad--in the shadow of an impressive church and stunning mountain views.

As expected, there was a lot of German/Austrian influence with the decorations and woodwork, but also some pretty glasswork and beautiful papier-mâché ornaments. The major difference I noted was that this market focused a lot on consumables: meat, cheese, and specialty liquors.

I visited the market on December 5, which in many places in this part of the world means a Krampuslauf. The market had two Krampus figures banging drums and jingling bells, and a St. Nikolaus, all wandering around, sometimes together, sometimes merely crossing paths and confronting each other. It definitely added to the festive, traditional atmosphere.

After I’d exhausted the possibilities of the main market, I wandered nearby streets and found a fresh food market and a few other stalls of crafts and food. Then I walked around a city park and slowly made my way back to the bus stop.

The trip: Other than the bus arriving 10 minutes late to pick us up, there were no incidents on the trip out. I sat at the window and spent most of my time looking at postcard-worthy snow-covered Alpine scenes and Italian castle ruins.

That evening, the bus was once again 10 minutes late, but this time it was a bigger deal because it was dark, cold, and there was no shelter. The crowd waiting closest to me was lively, speaking German but mocking our Bavarian destination, so I wasn’t sure if they were Austrian or from another part of Germany.

This was the first double-decker Flixbus I’d been on. Normally I would have climbed upstairs for a different view, but I had just read an article that morning about a FlixBus driver who took a wrong turn and sheared the (thankfully empty) top off his bus. No thanks.

Daytime? Ok. Nighttime? No way.

And those charming mountain roads we’d wandered through earlier in the day were downright ominous now. Steep angles, dark, fog--it was the only time I’ve used my seat belt on the bus.

Of course, we made it in one piece and without incident. But there were a couple of times I wondered what would happen if the bus broke down, or we slid on some ice and went tumbling over the side into one of those snow-covered, fairy-lit valleys down below.

Upon reflection: I’m not sure if the German affinity in Bolzano made this a representative “Italian” Christmas market. But the beautiful countryside did make me eager to come back and see more of the castle ruins along the way.

Maybe next year I’ll look for the southernmost Italian Christmas market for comparison, and make a warm-weather weekend of my trip!

Tomorrow: My final visit--another Alpine journey to the land of chocolate and precision timepieces...