Trento Culture

Trento is a city that works, and its culture is organised around competence rather than display.

Quality of life

Trento sits at or near the top of Italy's annual quality-of-life rankings almost every year: public services, health, environment, safety and income all rate well. Residents mention this, and visitors from the rest of Italy mention it more.

The university

A research university of real standing for a city this size, strong in physics, computing and cognitive science, which keeps the centre young and the bars busy in term and brings in several thousand students from the rest of Italy every year.

Two provinces, one region

Trentino is Italian-speaking and Catholic, South Tyrol is German-speaking and mixed, and they share a region and a budget without sharing much else. Trentini are generally clear that they are not South Tyroleans and mildly tired of being assumed to be.

Wine

Trentodoc, the metodo classico sparkling wine made in these valleys, is the serious local product; Teroldego from the gravel plain north of the city and Marzemino, name-checked in Don Giovanni, are the reds.

What the Council left

The city carries the Council lightly. There is no triumphalism about it, the sites are marked rather than staged, and most residents will tell you the castle frescoes are the better reason to come. That understatement is itself characteristic.

Mountains as routine

The mountain is not an excursion here but part of the week: people ski before work on the Bondone and walk on Sunday, and the city's mountain film festival is the oldest in the world.