Apple plantations

If you have arrived in Bolzano overland, you are probably already wondering what are those never ending lines of small trees on both sides of the road. Well, as you must have guessed by now, these are apple plantations. If you have ever seen an apple tree before, you would probably be surprised looking at them. In fact, these trees are regularly cut and left with small dimensions to favour a more conspicuous harvest, to maximize the density per square metre and to facilitate the fruit picking process. The area of South Tyrol alone grows over 50% of the whole Italian produce and another big portion of it comes from the neighbouring region of Trentino and its famous Val di Non. You don’t need to go far away from the city to walk through an apple plantation; they are easily found at walking distances in any direction and are usually not fenced, so easily accessible to anybody with no danger.
If you are lucky enough, then during late winters, you might witness a unique spectacle. When the temperature outside is still below the freezing point of water and the buds are just starting to appear, farmers irrigate the plantations at night to make the trees freeze. While it might seem illogical, the layer of ice created around the branches insulates the buds and protects the next harvest from possible damages. The view is simply magical, with hundreds of frozen trees with weird shapes!