This summer we visit the lowland of the Adige valley, because its simple nature reminds us of the Alaskan woods, and because here the cult of cuisine is widespread. At the end of the 19th century, ancient farm holdings became inns, then excellent mountain hotels. The grandmothers of the present owners went ‘a cucina’ (to learn cooking) at their own grandmothers’, and learnt whatever could be learnt. The Krone inn is renowned – both nearby and far away – for its delicacies served in the pacific terrace and in the beautiful 16th century lukewarm dining rooms, where the clergy-house bells toll. Herbs cream with flowers powder, salted Knödel with cheese, sweet apricot Knödel with cinnamon-flavoured breadcrumbs, traditional soups that smell like wine and juniper, roasts, the special aromas of rye bread (salt, cumin, fennel, anise, and the Brotklee grown by South Tyrolean women in their kitchen garden). Here, east of river Adige, runs the Italian-German language border. Here you will find Italian light-heartedness, genuine South Tyrolean food, and the influences of the Viennese and Bohemian cuisines. You can spend the night in one of the few bedrooms upstairs, past the narrow stairs and the ancient Venetian floor (Krone once belonged to the Lords of Castello d’Enna di Montagna), along pastel pink corridors with sepia portraits and wooden crucifixes.

Words and pictures Meraviglia Paper.