Exploring Bolzano with your Hire Car

Bolzano is the German-speaking region in the northern part of Italy. With a Bolzano car hire, you can easily explore vast attractions of the place. The city is world famous because of its mountaineering culture and history. This wonderful city is often known as the “Gateway to the Dolomites.” The snow-mantled Dolomites bring the place into full energy as many skiers from around the world enjoy its wonderful slopes. If you are visiting this astonishing work of nature, getting on a Bolzano car hire is the real deal.

Bolzano car hire services can take you to the town’s highlight destinations. Together with expert guides, you can drive around while enjoying the many facets of the town. There are tours offered by the city that can let you choose a wider array of interesting itinerary. The classic ‘art-historical tour’ allows you to uncover the original main street silhouetted by the famous arcaded walkways. On this tour, you can also enjoy the medieval town centre, castles, and museums. If you decide to take some time away from the town, you can quickly escape within minutes through a Bolzano car hire. After a quick drive, you can be enchanted with the stillness of the surrounding mountains along with the marvelous views of the Dolomites and the south Tyrol Mountains.

Driving Around Bolzano

If you are looking for diversity, then look up car hire in Bolzano and head to this small city found in Italy’s Trentino-AltoAdige region. While this may not be as popular as the bigger cities like Milan or Florence, Bolzano has a lot to offer especially to travelers who like discovering new places in different towns. While not too popular, car hire in Bolzano is not so hard to find. It is actually advisable especially if you want to get as much as you can while in this region of Italy.

The Free University of Bozen-Bolzano conducts lectures and speeches in various European languages like the native Italian, German, and English: a nod to the area’s multilingual status. If you have booked your trip with an agent, have him or her look up car hire in Bolzano so you would have a way to visit several of the city’s spots and landmarks without having to commute from one place to another. You can drive around the city and marvel at its structures, especially the Gothic and Romanesque churches.

If you plan visiting this place, put car hire in Bolzano on your list and from here, start on your amazing Italian adventure and vacation.

Eating out in Bolzano

Bolzano always ranks high in Italian surveys that measure the quality of life among the country’s cities.  While the city may be a bit expensive, it offers amazing services, a wonderful landscape and a generally happy disposition among its people.

It will be a welcome change for English-speaking tourists because much of the city’s younger population can converse well in it.  You can finally quit trying to second guess what you’re ordering every time you sit  down for supper - there’s a good chance you can ask someone to help you out.

Cuisine in the area is largely Austrian with Mediterranean influences, along with, of course, a distinctly Italian flare.  It is borne out of a mixture of tastes, which should tickle your palates more than your usual fares.  Popular food items include Schlutzkrapfen (spinach dumplings), Kaiserschmarrn  (a type of omelette), Speck (a local smoked ham), different types of bread and apple desserts.  As an important wine producer in the region, Bolzano naturally has some exquisite wines, although beer seems a staple in most bars too.

The Assumption of Our Lady Cathedral

Anyone arriving in Bolzano by hire-car can’t fail to be immediately impressed by what is Bolzano’s chief landmark and most striking building, the Assumption of Our Lady Cathedral.  Rising above the rest of Bolzano’s medieval buildings, this remarkable church is simultaneously a gem of Romanesque and Gothic architecture, and a symbol of the southern and northern influences in Bolzano.  The original Romanesque structure was consecrated in 1180, before being later embellished in the Gothic style. It is built from striking red and yellow sandstone, and features fearsome gargoyles reminiscent of Notre Dame in Paris, and which are considered masterworks of High Gothic architecture.

One of the finest achievements of the art of Gothic stonemasonry is the cathedral’s steeple, completed in 1517, which is visible from almost anywhere in the whole of Bolzano.  Such was is the intricacy of the stonework and height of the steeple it is said that the medieval inhabitants of Bolzano were afraid to sound the church’s bells for decades, for fear that it might collapse.  This is truly both a rarity and a gem, and worthy of a couple of hours of any visitor’s time.

Otzi, the Iceman of Bolzano

Not every city can boast a world-famous archaeological phenomenon, but in Otzi the Iceman, Bolzano has just that.  Bolzano’s South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology is home to the immaculately preserved body of Otzi, the mummified traveller from around 3300 BC who was discovered in a Tyrolean glacier in the early 1990s.  Offering an unprecedented insight into Copper Age European culture, the mummified, frozen body was discovered complete with its clothing and possessions such as copper axe, flint knife, bow, arrows and quiver, which are all preserved at the museum.

As the home of Europe’s oldest known natural human mummy, Bolzano has long been the centre of attention for archaeological enthusiasts and anthropologists, but this is too good an opportunity to miss for passing visitors too.  Anyone passing through Bolzano, in their hire-car or on foot, simply must visit this most remarkable of sights.  The museum was specifically established in 1998 to house Otzi, who is now held in a climate controlled chamber. Along with original finds there are models, reconstructions and multimedia presentations showing Ötzi in the context of the early history of the southern Alpine region.

Bolzano Cable Car

Bolzano is beautiful and is located in the Dolomites in northern Italy close to the Austrian border. Food is deliciously influenced by Austria and you’ll find menus printed in both Italian and German. Pack the car with mouth-watering food for you picnics too. Whilst in Bolzano you should take the cable car. It goes from Bolzano up into the mountains where there are beautiful walks and magnificent scenery. It gets rather chilly up there so don’t leave your sweaters in the car!! From here you can take a little train that takes an awesome route along the mountains of Bolzano. The cloister of the Dominican Church at Bolzano has in recent years been renovated and is a joy to see. There a many frescos with a fascinating combination of colours. There is a wonderful sun dial to see there too. Bolzano is also the place to see the famous 5000 year old “Ice Man”, as seen on many television documentaries. If you don’t know the Ice Man, he was found in the Alps about a decade ago and is well preserved. His home is in the South Tyrol Museum in Bolzano.