On 2012-10-09 07:08:58 -0500, Giovanni Drogo said:

The (autonomous) province of Trento correspond to the part called
"Trentino" and is exclusively of italian language. The (autonomous)
province of Bolzano/Bozen correspond to the part called "Alto Adige /
Südtirol" and is bilingual (actually trilingual, citizens have to
declare whether they belong to the German, Italian, or Ladin group).

Funny story. I was lost in Merano. This was back in 2009, the big
trip. The motorway from the south somehow enters Merano, but there was
no way to take the northerly road out, that I could see. I had to
navigate through the city. Got lost.

Once I drove around the same center three times, I asked for
directions. "Dove autostrada nord?"

And I get what I expected, a lightspeed response in Italian. Sigh.
The woman recognized I didn't follow, and perhaps because I was in a
German car, she asked, in German, if I spoke German! A little, I
replied. So through some pidgeon German and some pantomime (closing
and opening hands with fingers outstretched with the word "amphel"), I
know how many meters to travel until I went left, then after the third
"amphel", drive right, etc..

Finally made it out. SO glad they spoke German up there.

Later in my trip, I stopped for fuel in this part of Italy and the
clerk without pause starting talking to me in German. I escape a
tourist identification!

My German is the best non-English European language, and I've thought
to take a leave some day to immerse in a German language, maybe through
some classes at a local university. I always assumed it would be in
Germany or perhaps Austria. Maybe it could be south Tirol. Thoughts?
I understand the dialects can awkward to carry from place to place,
but, would it be any different in say, Berlin, if I spoke south
Tirolish German versus Bavarian, Stuttgartish, or Wiener German?

--
Dan Stephenson
http://stepheda.com
Travel pages for Europe and the U.S.A. (and New Zealand too)