The Alto Adige Christmas Markets

Private itineraries through the Dolomites — the German-Italian Christmas at its most authentic, in the weeks the markets are at their proper register.

There is a particular evening in the second week of December at the Christmas market in the small Alto Adige town of Brunico — Bruneck, in the local German — when the snow has begun to fall on the wooden stalls in the central piazza, the mulled wine vendors are running at capacity, the brass quintet from the local conservatory is playing the Pachelbel Canon for the third time, and the Tyrolean families with their children in heavy wool coats are moving through the lanes between the stalls in a slow ceremony that has been more or less continuous in this part of the Italian Alps since the middle ages. To stand at the centre of this scene with a glass of glühwein and a small paper cone of roasted chestnuts is to understand why a certain kind of European traveller has been quietly visiting the Alto Adige in December for many years.

The Christmas Market That Italy Does

The Alto Adige — South Tyrol in English, Südtirol in German — is the northernmost province of Italy, and it has been Italian only since 1919. Before that it was Austrian for six centuries, and the cultural memory of that long Austrian period remains so substantial that the province is, in any meaningful sense, still German-speaking. Most signs are in both languages. Most place names exist in both versions. Most schools teach in German. The cuisine is a Tyrolean cuisine. And, importantly for the December visitor, the Christmas market tradition is the Tyrolean Christmas market tradition transplanted into Italian wine and Italian organisational discipline.

The result is, we think, the most rewarding Christmas market experience in Europe. The German Christmas markets — Nuremberg, Dresden, Cologne — are larger and more famous, but they are also, increasingly, productions for the international tour-bus market. The Alto Adige markets are smaller, more locally rooted, and they remain, in most of the towns where they are held, primarily for the local population. The visitor is welcome but is not the primary audience. This is, in our reading, the right register.

The Markets in Order

There are five major Christmas markets in the Alto Adige, and we typically include three or four of them in a December itinerary. The Bolzano market, in the provincial capital, is the largest and best-known and runs in the Piazza Walther in the centre of the town. The Merano market, in the spa town to the north, is more compact and is held in the Kurpark next to the main spa building. The Brunico market, mentioned above, is smaller and more traditional in feel. The Bressanone (Brixen) market, in the small cathedral town, is held in the cathedral piazza and has, in our view, the most picturesque setting of the five. The Vipiteno (Sterzing) market, the smallest and most Alpine of the five, is held in the small town's main piazza below the medieval bell tower.

We typically arrange a five-day itinerary that visits each over the course of a week, with a base at one of the major hotels in the region (the Forestis above Bressanone, the Adler Spa Resort in San Cassiano, the Rosa Alpina at the same address) and private transfers between the towns each evening. The markets open in the late afternoon and are at their proper character after dark, which means the day's daylight hours can be devoted to other activities — skiing, walking, spa visits — without compromising the market visits in the evening.

What to Eat, What to Drink

The Christmas markets are, in part, a culinary occasion. The food at the stalls is the food of the Tyrolean Christmas: speck and the various salumi of the region, the brezel pretzels, the grilled würstel and the kaminwurzen, the apple strudel and the krapfen doughnuts. The drinks are the glühwein (mulled wine), the bombardino (an egg-and-rum cocktail that the Italians invented specifically for these markets), the local apple juice for the children. None of this is haute cuisine, and we do not pretend it is, but it is the genuine winter food of the region, and a long evening of moving between stalls with a glass of glühwein in hand is one of the more atmospheric ways to experience the local cuisine.

For the more formal meals we arrange around the markets, the dining options are, by some measure, the best in the Italian Alps. The constellation of starred restaurants we have written about elsewhere — the Sankt Hubertus, the La Stüa de Michil, the La Siriola — is the central one. For more honest Tyrolean cuisine at the high level, we recommend the Stube Hermitage in Madonna di Campiglio (technically Trentino but accessible from this region), the historic Forsterbräu in Merano, and the small but exceptional Schöneck in Brunico. Each is, in its different way, the cuisine of the German-Italian Alpine winter at its proper register.

The Stay, And the Skiing Around It

The Alto Adige in December is also the opening of the ski season, and most of our clients combine the Christmas market itinerary with a few days on the slopes. The Dolomiti Superski circuit — the lift-linked network that connects twelve major ski areas across the Dolomites — is, in early December, in good early-season condition with the lower runs typically open from the second week. The Alta Badia in particular, with its Sella Ronda circuit and its excellent on-mountain dining, is at our recommended level for early-season skiing.

The hotel choice for the December itinerary varies by the proportion of skiing to market-visiting in the schedule. For a market-heavy itinerary we recommend the Forestis above Bressanone, with its modern minimalist aesthetic and its remarkable south-facing views over the Plose. For a ski-heavy itinerary the Rosa Alpina in San Cassiano remains our standard answer. For clients who want a wellness emphasis, the Adler Spa Resorts in San Cassiano or the Hotel Lac Salin in Livigno are the considered alternatives.

December in the Alto Adige is, in our view, one of the most distinctive weeks the European year offers, and it deserves the right base.

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