• Italy Guide

  • Introduction to Italy
  • Weather
  • Things not to miss
  • Getting around
  • Entry requirements
  • Money
  • Public holidays

• Explore Italy

  • Piemonte and Valle d'Aosta
  • Liguria
  • Lombardy and the lakes
  • Trentino-Alto Adige
  • The Veneto
  • Friuli-Venezia Giulia
  • Emilia-Romagna
  • Tuscany
  • Umbria
  • Marche
  • Lazio
  • Abruzzo and Molise
  • Campania
  • Puglia
  • Basilicata and Calabria
  • Sicily
  • Sardinia

• Cities

  • Bari
    
  • Bologna
    
  • Bolzano (Bozen)
    
  • Florence & the best of Tuscany
    
  • Genoa
    
  • Lecce
    
  • Milan
    
  • Naples
    
  • Pésaro
    
  • Palermo
    
  • Pisa
    
  • Pompeii
    
  • Reggio Calabria
    
  • Rome
    
  • Siena
    
  • Sulmona
    
  • Trieste
    
  • Turin (Torino)
    
  • Udine
    
  • Verona
    
  • Vicenza
    

Italy Guide

Trentino-Alto Adige

Merano

• Hotels
• Hostel and campsite
• Eating

MERANO (Meran) lies in a beautiful, wide part of the Adige (Etsch) valley. Closer geographically and in looks to the Swiss and Austrian Alps than the Dolomites, the grandeur of the landscape turns up a notch here – and a simple event like a summer storm becomes a drama, with the whole valley reverberating to the rumble of thunder. A sedate spa town, Merano has a mild climate that attracted Central Europeans at the beginning of the last century after Empress Elizabeth of Austria – known as Sissi – chose the town for her winter cure. A resort of fin-de-siècle hotels, neat gardens and promenades evolved.