Bolzano Events

The Christmas market

From late November to early January, Piazza Walther fills with the largest Christmas market in Italy, running since 1990 and modelled on the Austrian and German originals rather than invented for tourists. It is the busiest the city gets all year and the hotel rates reflect it.

The fruit market

Not an event but the rhythm of the city: piazza delle Erbe has held a market six mornings a week since the eighteenth century, and it is where South Tyrol's apples, speck and cheese actually change hands.

Törggelen

From late September to November, the farms on the slopes open to serve new wine, roast chestnuts, speck and dumplings. It is a South Tyrolean institution rather than a festival, and the walk between farms is half the point.

The Bolzano Festival

In summer, a serious classical programme including the Busoni international piano competition, which has been held here since 1949.

Speck and wine fairs

Spring and autumn bring producer fairs in the city and in the villages around it, where the cooperatives that dominate South Tyrolean farming show what the year actually produced.

Speck and the calendar

The year in the valleys still runs on agricultural dates — slaughter and curing in late autumn, blossom in April, the apple harvest from September — and the city's markets and fairs follow them rather than a tourist calendar.

Mountain seasons

The ski season on the plateaux and in the Dolomites runs December to March, and the walking season May to October, and the city empties into both.