Canederli & Cantina di Montagna Muller Thurgau of the Trentino Alto Adige

Time is flying and we have covered about a quarter of Italy by now with our Italian Food, Wine & Travel (#ItalianFWT) group including Tuscany, Piedmont, Emilia Romagna, the Veneto and now today we talk about the Trentino-Alto Adige region. 

Fortunately, I just returned from this region a few weeks ago visiting the town of Trento, the capital of Trentino. Trentino-Alto Adige is considered 1 region, but the southern part is Trentino and the northern part is Alto Adige and they both have their respective capitals with Bolzano serving as the capital of the Alto Adige. 

This is the 2^nd alpine region of northern Italy I have visited and am in love with the way the mountain ranges dominate over the valleys and small villages. The air is crisp, clean and there is no better way to enjoy the outdoors and peace and quiet than in regions such as this.

I ventured to the town of Trento by train, which was only about an hour on the train coming from Verona where I was based. I love being able to wake up in the morning and jump on a train making it easy to enjoy a multitude of regions and towns conveniently. Trento is an easily walkable town in the downtown center much closed off by cars. I first started my journey around the city center from the Piazza Duomo, a magnificent large square with the Fountain of Neptune serving as the center and the a tower and church as the borders along with cafes and shops with the Dolomite mountains as a backdrop. It doesn't get much better than this to start with a deep breath and enjoy the surroundings.

Piazza Duomo ~ Trento

Here are some of my highlights architecturally of Trento that I enjoyed.

Buonconsiglio Castle Museum

Duomo ~ Trento

After exploring and wandering throughout the day and taking in the sites and prior to my return in Verona I took a much needed rest and stumbled upon a place called Duo. Duo serves as a restaurant downstairs and upstairs where I enjoyed window side seating at the bar that serves a variety of tapas, which is always so fun especially when you are getting a feel for what a regions cuisine has to offer. I decided to go with a dish typical to the Trentino region, which was canederli. Canederli are small dumplings made with stale bread and speck. If you aren't familiar with speck it's a ham that is salt cured and smoked. It's a simple cuisine that can be enjoyed by itself as I had or in a soup.

Canederli with Muller Thurgau

 The Trentino-Alto Adige has many Germanic influences and this can be discovered by the grapes found in this region. Enjoying my canederli I chose a local white wine, 2013 Cembra Cantina di Montagna Muller Thurgau Vigna delle Forche. This particular winery located in the Cembra Valley is set up high on the Trentino mountains making for very difficult harvesting. The winery is a cooperative that consists of about 400 growers that was established in 1952. This area is home to a special type of red rock known as porphyry. The Muller Thurgau of Cembra Cantina di Montagna was fresh, crisp with lots of minerality balanced with good fruit and some slight herbal notes.

Don’t stop here. We have lots more great information to share with you on the Trentino-Alto Adige region. Join the rest of our Italian bloggers group: 

FoodWineClick – Trentino-Alto Adige is Different: Goulash and Teroldego  
Orna O’Reilly – The Italian Dolomites: A Foodie’s Paradise 
Rockin Red Blog – Wine and Dine in Trentino-Alto Adige with #ItalianFWT 
Enofylz Wine Blog – A Taste of Alto Adige – Cantina Terlano Classico  
Cooking Chat - Italian wine with Indian Curry  
The Palladian Traveler - Under Doctor’s Orders in the Trentino 

Make sure to join us live on Twitter today and throughout the weekend at #ItalianFWT to chat about the Trentino-Alto Adige region and your experiences. We can’t wait to hear from you. Check back at #ItalianFWT throughout the month as well for additional blogs on food, wine and travel of Italy. Next month on April 4th we feature Sicily so stay tuned. Ciao ciao!

Don't miss an Italian wine blog ~ Subscribe