Every design for Merano - Meran

Stand in the gardens of Castel Trauttmansdorff and the whole basin of Merano opens below you: the town on the valley floor, the Passirio running through it to join the Adige, and mountains rising on every side. Three valleys meet here, the Vinschgau to the west, the Passeier Valley to the north-east and the Adige valley to the south, while the slopes of the Gruppo Tessa climb towards the Austrian border.

The Landesfürstliche Burg, the princely castle in the old town, recalls the centuries when Merano was capital of the County of Tyrol, before the court moved away to Innsbruck. Castel Tirolo, which gave the whole region its name, stands just outside the town, and above the rooftops the Zenoburg marks the rock where a late Roman stronghold once stood. In the nineteenth century the mild Alpine climate turned Merano into a celebrated spa town, visited by Franz Kafka and Empress Elisabeth of Austria, and it still blends Austrian and Italian ways. Even its name comes in two versions, Merano and Meran.

Coming back down from the Vinschgau, it is the first sight of the basin and its castles that tells you you are home.