BADIA – CORTINA D’AMPEZZO AND TRENTINO-ALTO-ADIGE 

 

In looking for the ingredients in some products of the Badia Company (founded in 1967 by Cuban refugee Jose Badia, in Doral, Florida). I happened upon the Comune di Badia in Italy. This aroused my interest, as many things do, so I present the following. Badia is the Italian word for abbey. In Tuscany there is the Badia di Coltibuono, Gaiole in Chianti; a thousand year old abbey that today is a resort and winery. 

Badia is a town in the geographic South Tyrol region of Italy. It sits high in the Dolomite Mountains, at 4,315 feet. It is one of five Ladin speaking communes in the valley.  Its major industry is lodging for tourists mainly interested in skiing. Nearby is Alta Badia, the higher Badia, where the slopes and ski lifts are located. 

In the surrounding area is the well-known skiing resort area of Cortina D’Ampezzo. Both of these communes, plus many more, are in the province of Belluno, the capital of the region of Veneto. It has the most severe weather of the country. The area, geographically, in Italy, is the South Tyrol, the northern part lies in Austria by that name as a province with the capital of Innsbruck, another famous skiing mecca.

The name South Tyrol also refers to the modern area of Trentino-Alto-Adige, where there has been a secessionist movement to reunify with Austria—some groups seek a free state of South Tyrol.

During the Middle-Ages the whole region was under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Aquileia, an ancient Roman city at the north end of the Adriatic Sea, and of the Holy Roman Empire. In the 1420s, the Republic of Venice conquered it. After the decline of the Republic it came under Austrian rule, and then went through a number of territorial changes in the period of the Napoleon régime, after which Austria once again ruled. The area, finally, by the Treaty of Versailles of 1918, it became part of Italy.

When Benito Mussolini came into power he sought to Italianize the area of Trentino-Alto-Adige—the modern political South Tyrol. The government established Italian settlements, opened schools and required the German and Ladin minorities there to learn Italian.

At the 1946 Treaty of Paris, the De Gasperi-Gruber agreement provided the right of the German and Ladin ethnics of Trentino-Alto-Adige to maintain their language and customs on par with those of Italian heritage. Nevertheless, over the years secessionist movements developed, with some using violence, such as in the Night of Fire, on June 12, 1961 when the electric supply unit was bombed. Prior to that during the 1950s separatist bombed many relics, statues, and buildings that were part of the previous infrastructure.

In 1972, Italy granted the area a measure of autonomy by negotiations between the Italian government and local officials. The provisions were also of a heated debate between Austria and Italy. The final agreement between these governments culminated in 1992, which granted an abundance of privileges to the political South Tyrol.   As an exemplifying result is―of the taxes paid in Tyrol, only ten percent go to the central government in Rome.

Ladin (Romanic-Rhaetian) language is also of significant interest. It developed after the Romans annexed the area. The original peoples, the Rhaetians, adopted the Vulgar Latin from the Roman magistrates and soldiers and have maintained it. At present, approximately, 70,000 people speak it. These people extend from Trentino-Alto-Adige to Cortina D’Ampezzo which includes Badia and Alta Badia and in parts of Friuli. In the political South Tyrol it is recognized as one of the three official languages—Italian, German, and Ladin. Ladin speaking also extends into Switzerland.