Day trip to Brixen\Bressanone

Return train ticket for 2, only 6.50 E - what a bargain. (Took a while to decipher the machine, though.)

Brixen is in the Alto Adige region, Südtirol. The old medieval town is full of wonders: the cathedral so decorated you can hardly see the walls, marble pillars and painted panels everywhere, narrow cobbled streets and arched walkways lending much needed shade.  

The diocesan museum had a fantastic exhibition of "crib scenes" depicting every aspect and stage of Christ´s life and death. Some are simple paper cutouts, others alabaster, and one series of scenes consisted of over 4000 carved wooden figures, depicting all the main events in Christ´s life. Just when we thought we had seen it all, a further gallery showed the work of Martin Rainer, with rough clay figures depicting scenes such as the last supper, and the wedding at Cana:  almost childlike in their simplicity, but oddly moving nonetheless. 

After a scorching day, we hunted out the local swimming pool.  This was an open air pool with grass and trees for shade, refreshments available, a water slide, and all with a fantastic view of the hillsides and cliffs.