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"The first time I visited Italy's quaint town of Bolzano I thought I had landed by accident on the other side of the Alps – across the Austrian border, in Innsbruck.
And not just because of the medieval pointed arches, frescoed wooden chalets and strudel-scented air. People here speak in German and have a hard time replying in Italian. When they do, their strong Teutonic accent takes you aback.
They're Italian citizens but simply don't feel Italian. Bolzano's local authorities estimate that German is spoken by 75% of the 510,000 inhabitants of the Alto Adige region. Locals, however, call it by its original name – South Tyrol – and many wish it were independent.
Eva Klotz is a co-founder of the separatist party Süd-Tiroler Freiheit (South Tyrolean Freedom). She carries a yellow card in her wallet that says "German is my mother tongue".
Klotz says: "There are acts of racism each single day. Despite Italian and German both being official languages, I often bump into police officers who don't know German. They point at the Italian flag stitched on their uniform and require I speak Italian simply because we're in Italy. They don't even know that I have the right to speak in my mother tongue so I show them this card. It drives me mad. I call this linguistic imperialism."
Klotz, who wears long Tyrolese braids and dresses in traditional costume, recently launched a survey for a referendum on South Tyrol's right to self-determination. "It was a huge success: 90% of the 61,000 voters are in favour. In the future this could either translate into full independence from Italy or re-annexation to Austria," she says.
"My dream is to reunite with Austria. I'm an Italian citizen but don't belong to the Italian culture, state nor language. I have a Tyrolese identity. In my cultural backpack there's Schiller."
Klotz says there is a glorification of fascism in the region. "This year over €2bn have been allocated to fund the restyle of fascist architecture and symbols in Bolzano. It's a disgrace."
A sculpture of Mussolini on horseback welcomes visitors at the entrance of the local Palace of Justice. Thirty-five miles south of Bolzano, in the town of Trento, a statue of Dante – the father of Italian language – holds his hand up against the Austro-Germanic domination.
South Tyrol lies at the feet of the Dolomites and was once part of the wider Austro-Hungarian empire. It was annexed by Italy in 1918 yet despite Mussolini's attempt to "Italianise" the area by forbidding German and pushing through Italian vocabulary and culture, locals have fought for their freedom even through terrorist attacks.
Here, Italian speakers are a minority. Citizens' ID cards are different from the rest of Italy's as they are green and written in Italian and German. The local flag is red and white with an imperial Austrian-style eagle in the middle. Epiphany Day – a traditional Italian Christmas festivity when children's stockings are filled with sweets and toys – celebrates the coming of the three wise men and not of the Befana witch on her broomstick.
"There's always been a serious identity issue," says Marco Brunazzo from the department of sociology and social research at Trento University. "Schools are divided according to mother tongue so kids grow up in separate worlds. This has led to integration problems among the different communities."
Valentino Liberto, head of Bolzano's Green Youth Movement, says: "Teenagers tend to hang out with school friends from their own ethnic group. Even sports clubs and squads are divided according to linguistic belonging."
But not everyone in South Tyrol wants to be independent. Liberto talks about his own feelings of identity: "I feel neither 'only' Italian or 'only' German but a little bit of both. I feel South Tyrolese. Luckily and differently from other people my age, I have both German and Italian friends and we like to go clubbing all together."
Many parents in the region make their children do the so-called "linguistic slalom", German middle school then Italian high school so they get to learn both languages.
The distribution of public jobs is based on a strict quota system that takes into account ethnic belonging according to the census. This means that if a school hires an Italian-speaking teacher, the next hire must be a German-speaker.
Green party councillor Brigitte Foppa says: "At the beginning this was meant to protect the German minority, but now having reached a balance it's quite out of date and there's a backlash. Italians feel penalised today. The two linguistic groups have grown apart and there's a lack of reciprocal understanding that leads to prejudices."
Foppa comes from what she calls a "mixed" family. "I had an Italian upbringing and my husband is from Florence. My kids, on the other hand, feel they belong to neither linguistic group."
Bolzano has Italy's highest GDP per capita, according to figures from Italy's National Statistics Office. Locals move around on bikes even when it rains and are proud of showing-off to the world Ötzi the Iceman, a mummy found in the glaciers close to Austria.
"Bolzano's just one of the many cases in Italy of language and identity clashes in border cities,"Brunazzo says. "Europe's state-building has been continuous over the last centuries but if borders can easily be changed identity cannot"" .
Written in 2014, SM
And not just because of the medieval pointed arches, frescoed wooden chalets and strudel-scented air. People here speak in German and have a hard time replying in Italian. When they do, their strong Teutonic accent takes you aback.
They're Italian citizens but simply don't feel Italian. Bolzano's local authorities estimate that German is spoken by 75% of the 510,000 inhabitants of the Alto Adige region. Locals, however, call it by its original name – South Tyrol – and many wish it were independent.
Eva Klotz is a co-founder of the separatist party Süd-Tiroler Freiheit (South Tyrolean Freedom). She carries a yellow card in her wallet that says "German is my mother tongue".
Klotz says: "There are acts of racism each single day. Despite Italian and German both being official languages, I often bump into police officers who don't know German. They point at the Italian flag stitched on their uniform and require I speak Italian simply because we're in Italy. They don't even know that I have the right to speak in my mother tongue so I show them this card. It drives me mad. I call this linguistic imperialism."
Klotz, who wears long Tyrolese braids and dresses in traditional costume, recently launched a survey for a referendum on South Tyrol's right to self-determination. "It was a huge success: 90% of the 61,000 voters are in favour. In the future this could either translate into full independence from Italy or re-annexation to Austria," she says.
"My dream is to reunite with Austria. I'm an Italian citizen but don't belong to the Italian culture, state nor language. I have a Tyrolese identity. In my cultural backpack there's Schiller."
Klotz says there is a glorification of fascism in the region. "This year over €2bn have been allocated to fund the restyle of fascist architecture and symbols in Bolzano. It's a disgrace."
A sculpture of Mussolini on horseback welcomes visitors at the entrance of the local Palace of Justice. Thirty-five miles south of Bolzano, in the town of Trento, a statue of Dante – the father of Italian language – holds his hand up against the Austro-Germanic domination.
South Tyrol lies at the feet of the Dolomites and was once part of the wider Austro-Hungarian empire. It was annexed by Italy in 1918 yet despite Mussolini's attempt to "Italianise" the area by forbidding German and pushing through Italian vocabulary and culture, locals have fought for their freedom even through terrorist attacks.
Here, Italian speakers are a minority. Citizens' ID cards are different from the rest of Italy's as they are green and written in Italian and German. The local flag is red and white with an imperial Austrian-style eagle in the middle. Epiphany Day – a traditional Italian Christmas festivity when children's stockings are filled with sweets and toys – celebrates the coming of the three wise men and not of the Befana witch on her broomstick.
"There's always been a serious identity issue," says Marco Brunazzo from the department of sociology and social research at Trento University. "Schools are divided according to mother tongue so kids grow up in separate worlds. This has led to integration problems among the different communities."
Valentino Liberto, head of Bolzano's Green Youth Movement, says: "Teenagers tend to hang out with school friends from their own ethnic group. Even sports clubs and squads are divided according to linguistic belonging."
But not everyone in South Tyrol wants to be independent. Liberto talks about his own feelings of identity: "I feel neither 'only' Italian or 'only' German but a little bit of both. I feel South Tyrolese. Luckily and differently from other people my age, I have both German and Italian friends and we like to go clubbing all together."
Many parents in the region make their children do the so-called "linguistic slalom", German middle school then Italian high school so they get to learn both languages.
The distribution of public jobs is based on a strict quota system that takes into account ethnic belonging according to the census. This means that if a school hires an Italian-speaking teacher, the next hire must be a German-speaker.
Green party councillor Brigitte Foppa says: "At the beginning this was meant to protect the German minority, but now having reached a balance it's quite out of date and there's a backlash. Italians feel penalised today. The two linguistic groups have grown apart and there's a lack of reciprocal understanding that leads to prejudices."
Foppa comes from what she calls a "mixed" family. "I had an Italian upbringing and my husband is from Florence. My kids, on the other hand, feel they belong to neither linguistic group."
Bolzano has Italy's highest GDP per capita, according to figures from Italy's National Statistics Office. Locals move around on bikes even when it rains and are proud of showing-off to the world Ötzi the Iceman, a mummy found in the glaciers close to Austria.
"Bolzano's just one of the many cases in Italy of language and identity clashes in border cities,"Brunazzo says. "Europe's state-building has been continuous over the last centuries but if borders can easily be changed identity cannot"" .
Written in 2014, SM
