Alto Adige or South Tyrol, depending on your cultural standpoint, is a less visited and often overlooked region of Italy, possibly because it is less Italian than, say, Sicily or Tuscany. Formerly part of Austria, this superb bilingual region — Italian and German — located on the border of Austria and Switzerland has much to offer visitors: castles, neo-classical villas and the beautiful Dolomites. It is also home to Oetzi, the oldest mummy, now in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano that devotes half of its space to the material culture of this unfortunate little man.

One of the main tourist destinations is the thermal resort of Merano, first popularised by trendy Austrian imperial sensation Sissi (still a popular name in the region). If you walk up and down the winter promenade you’ll understand why. Merano is still catering to jet-setters from all over Europe thanks to diet and anti-aging guru Henri Chenot’s well-being center at the hotel Palace Merano, which has recently welcomed Pavarotti, Princess Caroline of Monaco and Zidane, the recently retired French soccer star. Concomitantly, the newly designed Merano Thermal Baths attracts the beautiful people living in Northern Italy and beyond.

The region also boasts fantastic architecture, food, beer and wine, all of which reflect Italian and Austrian influences — a winning mix if you ask me. In December, don’t miss the beautiful Christmas markets of Alto Adige, very popular with the Milanese who dress up like Eskimos when they venture to Tyrol. Art from Tyrol is also of interest, especially if you like “tribal baroque,” a sort of weird genre where horns of mountain goats feature prominently (think Marie Antoinette meets Alpine mountain folks).