Bolzano


BolzanoBozen is a town with two faces: strong un-Italian for whoever comes up from the south and Mediterranean for whoever comes down from the north. Various mountain ridges and plateaus surround the town: the Ritten plateau with its famous earth pyramids and delightful inns, Jenesien on the Tschöggelberg plateau and the Kohlern mountain -all are just a short excursion from the town and have been popular for centuries as holiday resorts for the inhabitants of Bozen. Also nearby is the Sarntal valley, famous not only for its costumes but also for its intricate woodwork and for the old custom of "Klöckeln"- driving away the evil spirits at the winter solstice

The Archaeological Museum of Bolzano in Alto Adige features the most relevant archaeological remnants discovered in the district. The museum itinerary brings visitors through the Inferior Palaeolithic and the Mesolithic, the Neolithic, the Copper Age, The Bronze Age and the Iron Age, the Roman time and the Late Antiquity. Besides the exhibition of panels and objects, a sophisticated system of multimedia workstations helps convey a full image of the different times. The exhibition obviously finds its pitch in the Copper Period section, focused on one of the most outstanding discoveries of our Century: The Iceman Mummy. The finding of the Man from ice represents one of the most important discoveries of our Century. The preservation or the organic materials, favoured by the particular environmental conditions of ice, is exceptional. The Man from ice lived between 3350 and 3100 b.C.