Many travelers head to Italy’s northernmost regions for the gorgeous mountain resorts, but the area is also home to fascinating cities that can provide a different take on the Italian experience. In Bolzano and Merano in the South Tyrol you’ll find, despite differences in customs, aesthetics and languages, an engaging hybrid of Germanic and Mediterranean cultures.

(In both cities, once ruled by Austria-Hungary, German and Italian are spoken.) Although Udine in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region was also subject to Austrian rule (in the nineteenth century), another more enduring overlord, the Republic of Venice, left a far greater mark on this under-the-radar cultural haven, as it did in the Trentino city of Rovereto.