Tom`s travels: Alto Adige/South Tyrol (27-29/12/2014)

We left early on the 27th at around 8am, 2 of my friends, my brother and I, and reached Bressanone, our first stop, at 10:30. We parked the car and headed for the main square, Piazza del Duomo, the main and most beautiful square of this little town. Since it was during the Christmas holidays, the square looked even better with all the traditional Christmas markets and lights. After looking through the stalls, we headed inside the Duomo, first built in the 10th century, what we now see dates from the 18th century, in the Baroque style with beautiful frescoes, decorations and glassware. From there we got to the cloister, the only Gothic part remaining of the cathedral, with wonderful frescoes dating from the 10th and 15th centuries. Feeling a little hungry we headed to the heart of the city center through its small winding streets to find a restaurant. After checking out a few of them we settled for one called Fink, which was well rated on Tripadvisor and Foursquare; in fact the canederli or knoedel there were fantastic and probably the best I ever had! After lunch we walked around some more, entered the St Michael's church and then walked along the streets seeing the two main town gates and passing by the Seminary. We then headed to the Bishop's Palace or Hofsburg, that used to be the local Bishop's residence; a beautiful Renaissance building with loggias, now a museum and one of the most important in Europe regarding nativity scenes. Once out it has started snowing, which made the main square even prettier especially since it was now dark and the lights where shining creating a perfect Christmas atmosphere. It was now time to leave so we went back to the parking lot and back in the car headed towards Brunico, where we would spend the night at my aunt's house. Since we were a bit tired to cook, we decided to eat at a restaurant close to the house in Chienes; the food wasn't bad, though not the best either, but we were tired so it was alright and we went to bed immediately after. The next day we tried waking up and leave early but we only managed at 10am. We then headed for Lake Braies with me driving. After 40 minutes we reached the destination: a lake standing at 1496m above sea level, surrounded by beautiful mountain peaks such as the Croda del Becco. That day, being really cold, the lake was completely frozen so we walked all the way to the middle and then around it too. After a while we decided to have lunch and at the restaurant on the lake's shore, the food was decent and definitely better than the night before. We then headed for Brunico but first dropped our friend home cause he didn't feel very well. We then went back into Brunico and walked around the town and the nice christmas market, which I think was bigger and better than the one in Bressanone. After sunset we decided to head back home after having walked up to the castle. Once home we then went to Petra's restaurant to have dinner; I thought my canederlu had too much garlic in them. The next day we dropped my 2 friends at Plan de Corones, the ski resort, since they had never seen it, however just going up and down cost 17,50€, so my brother and I decided not to go, since we always went there to ski, and headed into Brunico instead to buy a coffee pot that my friend had burned. We had lunch at Klostereck a small place that had really good food right outside the town walls. After lunch we went back to pick up the others and then to the house to pack the things and leave. After driving for 40 minutes we reached Bolzano, parked the car and headed for the main square that like the other towns had the Christmas market too. We then went inside the Duomo, already an early christian church, the church now dates to the 16th century in the Gothic style, and it quite pretty. We also visited the Dominicans' church; the church dating from the 13th century doesn't seem much from the outside, but once inside there is the amazing fully frescoed medieval chapel of St John. To end our journey we went to the Loacker shop near the cathedral and bought some tasty chocolate to bring home, and after a 2 hour drive we were back in Vicenza for dinner.