‘Hidden in the Fog’ - Gais, Italy
‘It’s easy to see that the area of South Tyrol or ‘Alto Adige’ used to be part of Austria for long, namely until World War I. Both German and Italian are widely spoken here but one thing was outstanding; the difference between the Italian and German names of places here. They are not a translation of each other but seem like entire new names! After doing some research I found out that fascist Italy under Mussolini was extremely against Austrian influences in South Tyrol. During his reign, he prohibited teaching German and German surnames had to be ‘Italianized’ . This might be a good explanation of the extreme differences between the names of places all the time. Another fun fact, according to the owner of the hotel I stayed in ‘Gais’ is one of only two places that is called the same in both languages.’
