Trento, Bolzano, and Merano, Italy - 10 Festive Days in December
In December, my friend Emelia and I visited Northern Italy in the mountains for 10 days.
Due to Italy’s new Digital Nomad Visa (DNV), which launched in 2024, I wanted to scope out this region to see if I might want to make a more permanent nomad move there. The DNV enables those who make roughly $30k a year with a remote job to live and work in Italy for up to a year, with the option to renew year after year. There seems to be a path to citizenship after 5 years, so for those of us exploring ways to have the option to leave the US, it’s a seemingly feasible path. The trade-off is working US hours in the Central European time zone. 9-5 in NYC equates to 3-11 in Milan.
I was eyeing the city of Trento because it meets the basic requirements of a city where I’d want to live:
Population of at least 100,000 and/or proximity to a large city (it has both as it’s a 2-hour train ride to Milan)
In or very near to the mountains
Has a highly rated major university (in this case, University of Trento, ranked #333 in US News’ Global University index) because I like being around intellectual people
Additionally, I loved living in nearby Innsbruck, Austria, where I was cat-sitting for 5 weeks from August to September this past Fall. I thought checking out Trento and Bolzano would be a good idea, and every blog post recommended seeing Merano, so we went there for a day trip.
Alto Adige / South Tyrol & Trentino, Italy
In this blog:
Trento
City center
Hiking Parco Naturale del Doss Trento and Monte Calisio
Trento Christmas Market
Buonconsiglio Castle
Fluffy Pancakes
Bolzano
Bolzano Christmas Market
Krampus
Merano
Hiking Day
Christmas Market at Castle Tyrol
This little region of Italy is also German-speaking. To understand why, check out this video and map showing what happened after the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after WW1.
Christmas markets in Northern Italy originate from centuries-old Germanic and Austrian Christkindlmarkt traditions and feature cute wooden stalls, vin brulee (mulled wine), festive decor, and sometimes an ice skating rink.
This made it an especially festive time to visit this region, but also an especially crowded and expensive time to visit.
Trento
Tour of the Town
Trento has a picture-perfect city center with well-preserved historic buildings. There are many stately cathedrals that sit beside piazzas (town squares). Piazza del Duomo di Trento features a large fountain in the center with mer-people blowing from conches.
Highlights:
The river that runs along the west side of town
The mountains surrounding the town on either side, creating epic skyline views
The Trento Science Museum (not pictured), Muse, and surrounding park
“Le Albere” neighborhood just outside the museum — modern/hip
Favorite coffee/breakfast spot: Urban House
Favorite dinner spot: Ristorante Patelli
Favorite spot to grab espresso at the counter: Casa del Caffè
Habitat Guest House - the woman working at the reception was so friendly and welcoming! Great location in Le Albere and really nice rooms.
Hiking Day
One day we did a small hike to Parco Naturale del Doss Trento, a hill on the Western side of the river that overlooks the town. It was 2 miles.
We decided we weren’t feeling done so in the afternoon we did a bigger, longer hike at 7.5 miles to Monte Calisio on the Eastern side of the city.
Parco Naturale del Doss Trento
This hike took us up to a mausaleum and archeological site.
Monte Calisio
We did not hike all the way to the top of the mountain. We turned around in time to get down with sunlight.
Here is the All Trails map of this hike.
Basically, we just picked a high point on the map in a nature area and started walking UP. We walked through the outskirts of Trento, through smaller towns, and finally found a walking trail in the woods, which was magical. We were rewarded with epic views, including sweeping ones from a hilltop vineyard.
Queens of the Mountain
Trento Christmas Market
One day, they were filming at the Christmas market for netflix show The Four Seasons (with Tina Fey and Steve Carell) so the market was closed. If that’s a show you watch, keep a lookout for that episode in the future!
The main regional thing to eat was a sort of taco made of hash browns. Pictured are the one I got: sauerkraut and ham; and Emelia’s: mushroom and cheese.
The Christmas markets were festive, but the trinkets they sell all seemed pretty useless. Take, for example, these pencils with owls on top. Maybe cute for a kid for a few minutes…but ultimately it’s going to end up in the trash. It was hard not to feel discouraged about the wasteful nature of capitalism while at these markets, as charming as they were.
Buonconsiglio Castle
We didn’t tour the inside but we enjoyed the beautiful gardens, especially the festive holiday balls hanging from the trees.
Visit the castle’s website here.
Fluffy Pancakes
We kept seeing the promise of “fluffy pancakes” as we traveled around, but they were elusive! Even if they were listed on the Google Maps reviews, it didn’t always mean they were currently available. We finally tracked them down at a hole-in-the-wall spot in Trento called FC Dasklub. The venue appeared to be a nightclub by night and a fluffy pancake procurer by day, which seemed like a strange combination, but the pancakes were delicious. The spot featured a grand piano as a storage unit, which we had mixed feelings about.
Bolzano
Bolzano Christmas Market
Next, we headed North to Bolzano, a charming Dolomites mountain town, where they had an epic Christmas market, which was packed full of holiday revelers.
Krampus
Krampus is a devil-like companion to St. Nicholas with folk origins in Germany and Austria. It reminded me of the “Perchten” I blogged about during my trip in the Austrian mountains, in which devilish masks are donned for a winter festival to signify the dark sides of human nature.
Wikipedia says:
“Krampus is a horned, demonic figure in Central European Alpine folklore who acts as a dark companion to St. Nicholas, punishing naughty children during the Christmas season. Traditionally, he appears on Krampusnacht (Dec. 5) to whip misbehaving children with birch branches or carry them away in a sack, embodying a terrifying, ancient "anti-Santa" tradition.”
We were indeed walking around Bolzano on December 5th. It was a creepy yet fun sight to behold!
It was very expensive to stay in town so we ended up finding a bed and breakfast, Unterweg Jenesien, outside of town, which we didn’t realize was straight up a mountain. The drive back and forth was a little treacherous. But the view was amazing and the woman, Maria, was very sweet.
One fun moment was outside of a grocery story at the main square. We saw a children’s vending machine with bouncy balls inside. Inside of each clear ball was a rubber animal. Emelia said, “We’ll probably get something lame like a crab when what we really want is a shark.” We put a 2e coin in, turned the crank, and out popped…a crab! Lol! We laughed and laughed.
Sometimes life is like that.
Val Gardena, Dolomites
We went on a day trip to the Dolomites. I have a whole separate blog for that here.
Merano
We went on a day-trip from Bolzano to Merano and it was enchanting!! We saw lots of runners and trail runners out n’ about. We went for a long hike up the mountain behind the town and found a castle with a gorgeous Christmas market.
I made a fun video about Merano here:
Christmas Market at Castle Tyrol
We enjoyed vin brulee (mulled wine) at the castle’s Christmas market and these fried pockets with either spinach and cheese or sauerkraut inside.
Hiking Route
