I was wondering if anyone can share their experience about this Christmas Market. I am considering going using PostAuto to Mals / Meran and then by train to Bolzano. Just wanted to know if it was worth it to spend 2-3 days there.

http://www.christmas-markets.it/en/c...uth-tyrol.aspx

It is a bilingual place, German and Italian I am given to understand and quite unique with a large Christmas Market, possibly the largest in Italy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolzano

Don't forget to visit Otzi the iceman!

I haven't been there during Christmas market time, but it's definitely worth a 2-3 day visit. I would take a day trip for lunch up to Bressanone. I really like this part of the world.

I have heard lots of good things about this place and will be visiting in the first week of December.

Enjoy your trip!! We went for a long weekend in the Dolomiti in October and it was beautiful!! We stayed in Ortisei - never went to the town of Bolzano - there was so much scenery to see in the mountains. The food was good - more Austrian/German than Italian - heavier pasta (dumplings) lots of meat - like pork shank (stinco) and speck (cured smoked 'proscuitto'). The area is famous for wood carving so I would expect lots of carved nativity figures at the Christmas market.

We drove - so filled the car with cured meats, wine, cheese, porcini for the way back. And apples!! The northern part of Italy was apples as far as the eye can see and we stopped at a farm and got the biggest, juiciest, crispiest apples - my fave were the weinsaps.

There is a new Merano Plus Spring Card which allows you access to Bozen / Bolzano.

And for EUR22, you can travel by rail across DE by DB one way.

URL

If coming from CH, your hotel will mail it in advance, for some saving in reaching to your destination.

Postauto Engadin-Merano route