Page 155 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL SPRING 2025 GRAND VOYAGE

Meran

South Tyrol has about 534,000 inhabi-
tants out of which about a quarter of a
million live in the greater metropolitan
area of Bozen. The region’s beating heart,
however, is Meran about one hour north of
the capital. Here Europe's largest contigu-
ous apple-growing region is located, where
about 6,000 farmers produce every second
apple in Italy and every tenth in Europe.
Meran is South Tyrol’s second biggest
city and was the Tyrolean capital for cen-
turies, its grandeur still visible in the prom-
enades and palm trees, gardens and parks,
castles and palaces, villas and magnificent
buildings. Known for its sunny microclimate
since the Habsburg era the charming town
has been a beloved spa destination at-
tracting Austrian royals as well as notable
figures such as Freud and Kafka. The city's
therapeutic traditions have flourished in
the new millennium, with spa hotels at-
tracting a new generation of health-con-
scious visitors and bolstering the region's
booming organics movement.
At the hotel Castel Fragsburg, Renate
de Mario Gamper oversees the region's
first alchemistic healing spa. "I grew up a
bit like Heidi," she laughs. "Every summer,
my family moved up to the Alm. We slept in
the hay, the water came from the stream,
the milk fresh from the cow." Growing up in
the mountains, she learned about nature's
healing properties from her grandmother.
"Herbs are like friends. You don't need a lot
but the ones you have you know well and
can rely on around the clock," she says, of-
fering insights into traditional remedies
during guided walks. The spa offers unique
treatments like goat's milk baths in out-
door larch wood tubs.

Left: Meran Right top: pedestrian zone in
Meran. Right bottom: Renate de Mario
Gamper. ©all images by Wibke Carter

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