THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A language war has broken out amid the normally placid lakes and mountains of Italy's German-speaking South Tyrol region.Italian-speakers are furious at the number of footpath signs which have been erected in only German in the Dolomites, an area that is renowned for its extensive hiking trails and spectacular scenery.
Hikers who speak only Italian have been left bamboozled when confronted with signs pointing to an Archaologischer wanderweg [sic] [Wanderweg] (archaeological trail) or a wasserfall [sic] [Wasserfall] (waterfall - which in Italian would be the vastly different “cascata”).
The region, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until it was ceded to Italy at the end of the First World War, is supposed to be bilingual, a dual identity reflected in its name - Alto Adige in Italian and Sud [sic] Tirol [Südtirol] in German.
Road signs are rendered in both Italian and German - the regional capital of Bolzano, for instance, is Bozen in German while the town of Bressanone is also known as Brixen - but up in the mountains, particularly in areas close to the Austrian border, German increasingly predominates.
Heaped with snow in winter and baked by the sun in summer, the timber signs do not last forever. » | Nick Squires, Rome | Tuesday, April 26, 2011
