Apples, apples, apples :)

On Tuesday I took my car and drove to Marling, a village on a hill just 5 minutes from Merano. I had a meeting with the president of the tourist office of the town, a very gentle man. During the last three years I called him to ask him if he would bring the carriage with the apple crown to the procession of the Grape Festival in Merano. This year I made him a surprise :) I asked him if he could dedicate me some of his time for a brief interview about the history of the carriage. As the carriage has been his baby during the last 15 years, he accepted with enthusiasm to make an interview with me. Also this carriage needs several days for its preparation. There must be at least three persons for three days to create it and you need one day to dismantle it. Over 500 kg apples and 14 kg nails!! Also this carriage has been created 1951 for the Landesmusikfest (the X-large version of the Merano Grape Festival) and Mr. Arquin could even find a picture of the carriage in 1951! I love history... :) After the Merano Grape Festival, the carriage is exposed in Marling for at least two weeks in the central place of the village.
I'm working hard for this event, but I think it's worth it. Every year it's a big emotion for me to see so many people coming to Merano and interacting for passion for music, for tradition, for nice food, for the beautiful things of life. And for me it's cool to have a role in all this too.

So many things :)

This has been a pretty full week :) September is a stressy month for me anyway, but this week I had also some interesting happenings I can still hardly recall :)
On Monday it was the turn of tradition, I went to Algund to interview some of the guys who take their time every year to rebuild the giant grape for the carriage marching during the big procession of the Grape Festival Merano. It's an amazing thing that people dedicate time and passion for tradition every year just for the sake of it. It's an honour for them to prosecute a familys usage. One of the two guys I could interview is the grandchild of the man who created the carriage 1951. They will start rebuilding it two days before the Festival (16. October) and I'm allowed to go there, take some pictures and of course... to help them ;)
On Thursday I met a friend of mine and we decided to go to eat sth at the Sardinian restaurant "Mirto" in Merano. The temperature was still as nice as to allow us to eat outdoors. I took the usual lamb dish with vegs and something really special for dessert: a beer-Tiramisu!!! You wouldn't believe it, it's great!! Tasty but delicate at the same time, fresh and creamy... Yum! We had a nice chat and a great dinner and got home pretty late... ;)
Saturday was a great day again, I had the chance to cooperate for the Children Festival in Merano. The Tourist Authority of Merano organised a travelling fairy-tale telling. We had a professional narrator and a few little children curious to listen to her stories. The first leg was the Kallmuenz park, an amazing place for it's quiet and magic atmosphere... Then we took our blankets and bottles of water and went to the park of the Thermal Baths. You feel totally surrounded by the mountains there... Some elder people passed by and briefly listened to our stories smiling :) The city was packed with children and their parents taking them from one game to the other, fortunately the weather contributed to the success of the event :)
During the afternoon we went to the 2. ECM BBQ. The ECM is the English Club Merano in Facebook, a club for people talking in English in Merano, started by a good friend of mine. The first idea was to meet for aperitives, then we organised a BBQ and yesterday we had the 2. Due to the uncertainty of the weather, some members purposed to keep it in a court they own. It is a get-together of nice people knowing each other, meeting there for the first or the second time, staying together easily and talking about many different things. It's always really funny that there is a huge quantity of any kind of food, from Indian, to American, to Italian, to South Tyrolean... It's a cool mix of cultures and of people talking English, German and Italian just as they wish, one of the nicest groups I ever joined :)

Sunny September

The days are finally getting fresher now. As nearly every year September is wonderfully sunny :) It happens to have rainy and windy nights, after those the day appears totally clean - washed by the pattering water - and colourful.
During the day you can still walk in your T-shirt under the sun and enjoy the bright green still dominating the landscape.
My favourite trail for walking and jogging is the beloved Tappeinerweg, you can reach it in 10 min. by walking and in a few steps you already watch over Merano and its valleys. An amazing gift of the Austrina doctor, botanist and anthropologist Franz Tappeiner, who made it possible to have so many Mediterranean plants cropped in Merano. Probably the only city in the alps with its own palm trees, cacti and cluster figs.
On Saturady I enjoyed a nice walk and watched the many flowers, grapes and apples growing in the sun... Cool :)

Good things for me & for the community

This week I did some good things for me and for the community.
I had a bad start Monday morning, chaos and stress all the time, but then I could spend my lunch-time at the fitness center of the Merano Thermal Baths. After a nice aerobics training and a restoring shower the world really looks much friendlier :) The plans for the night were also pretty interesting: a gorgeous concert by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Kurhaus, the second of the long series branded Merano Music Festival. That kind of music, the beautiful late summer atmosphere and the majesty of the Kurhaus are a veritable life blood for the souls...
Apropos blood, today I went to the hospital of Merano to make a donation. The ambience is always very nice there. Dr. Platter, responsible for the the medical part of the organisation, uses to come over to the volunteers just like a father would do, asking them if the're all right. The nurses do their job with professionlism and tranquillity, also really caring for the patients well-being. There is always nice music accompaning you while you wait for your turn and after having donated you can have the second part of the foreseen breakfast. You are allowed to leave the place, only when you are sure to be all right. I am a bit weekened because of the donation, but I also feel good because I know I've done something good for the community. :)

Looong week-end

Last week my week-end began on Thursday. A simple call from a sweet friend of mine, asking me if I wanted to go to concert the same night. Chico & the Gypsy were playing at the Gardens of Trauttmandorff Castle! We had a great night! Singing, dancing and laughing all the time, an amazing scenery was surrounding us all...

On Friday began the Matteotti Street Festival, a party with rock music and nice food to eat. We went there on Saturday and had some gorgeous chanterelles with dumplings and vegetables by Erwin's Pasta Fresca.
After that we enjoyed the dessert by Poehl, a tasty Sacher and I was in peace with the world!



The day after I got up early to meet my mum and a friend for a trip in the mountain. We went to Voeran, left the car at the parking place and went up to the station by walking. It took us nearly two hours, it's 900 m altitude difference, fortunately it was fresh and shady, so we could go up without suffering the heat. As we arrived, we rewarded ourselves with a big, sweet breakfast: coffee and self-made cakes...! Wow :)

Busy, dreamy summer nights in Merano

Every year the whole thing starts the third week of July. Five long Tuesdays and twice as many summer nights take place in the heart of the town. I had the fortune to live some of them after my holiday abroad. I went to the long Tuesday last week, enjoyed a gorgeous fish meal on piazza della Rena and watched beautiful models dressed with autumnal, South Tyrolean, night garments and pretty lingerie. A dreamy night with a beautiful bottle of Lagrein for my mum and me. Life can just be so simply amazing! Yesterday we went to the last Long Tuesday, which was dedicated to theatre and did some shopping because we thought we would get some tickets of the shopping lottery "buy & win" and... guess what? We got into the only shop not participating at the initiative! Gosh!

Anyway... nearly every night the tourist office of Merano also organised a different concert, from jazz wiht the Zato so sings 4et, to Latin American music to Abba. Tonight it was the turn of the "Rivali", performing beautiful blues, soul and funky music, taking you back in time, as well as energic and funny songs by Sugar. Friday evening will conclude the series with a concert dedicated to the 80ies. In the night the air is wonderful, the heat disappears and a nice breeze takes its place. Merano is packed with enthusiastic people enjoying the last summer nights of this year.

A new situation again...

After two weeks of inexorable sun in Rhodos, here I am in Merano again and... guess what? It's raining!! I can't believe it! I wasn't really thinking of doing great things during my last holiday days here, but this weather is rather all but stimulating... :(
I hope for it to stop the next days :) Merano will be animated by a Long Tuesday in the center and a Summer night on the Promenade.