La Carinthia is the ideal region to spend a relaxing holiday in contact with nature identity, away from Chaos of cities and destinations overcrowded by tourists.
Useful tips and information
My wife and I preferred to stay in the most interesting places from a historical and landscape point of view, ie in the eastern part of the region.
West of Klagenfurt we visited quickly Spittal an der Drau e Millstatt am See.
In all tourist offices it sells for € 32 la Karnten Card, which I highly recommend, as it allows facilities and access to attractions of various kinds.
In Austria the tourist offices are truly exemplary: well signposted, equipped with maps, brochures and various, comprehensive leaflets, with multilingual and trained staff.
What to see and places to visit in Carinthia
SPITTAL AN DER DRAU
Here we walked around for about an hour, enough time to see the Town hall (the Town Hall), the adjacent gardens and the inevitable monument to the arm that holds the sword, which together with the frescoed sundials will be one of the recurring subjects of visits to historic centers, castles and he asked of the Carinthia.
MILLSTATT
It is a small village on the lake of the same name, which can be toured in 2 hours.
To visit the abbey and the adjoining Benedictine double tower church.
The church door is beautiful with evocative faces engraved on the columns of the splay.
Then, in the courtyards, the inevitable sundial painted on one wall, a thousand-year-old lime tree (in the courtyard of the former Lindenhof hotel), and some bronze statues (a female figure and a flock of sheep) surrounded by colorful flower beds. The visit to the museum, were it not for the chests of the Gonzagas and the remarkable laborious rope weaving of the Benedictine monks, is not indispensable.
It is open from 01/05 to 30/09, closes from 12 to 14, costs € 2,50.
The museum staff reminded me of middle school janitors; in the courtyard of the museum cats, buckets, brooms. Try to open all the doors you find along the way in the museum, otherwise you risk missing out on some room.
KLAGENFURT
It is a lovely city that can be visited in 2 days, we stayed three nights because we chose it as a base for touring the Carinthia.
The things to visit are almost all in the historic center, perfectly rectangular in shape and in which it is very easy to find your way around.
The tourist office is located in a room of the Town Hall on the NW of the Neuerplatz, at the corner with Wiesbaden street.
Nice walk across the pedestrian area on Alterplatz and adjacent streets, both for shopping and for an outdoor drink in the evening.
Beware, the shops close at 18pm and so do the patisseries.
The courtyards are beautiful, many of them surprisingly, which connect streets and blocks and which constitute an alternative way of exploring the city.
In many of these beautiful shop windows and nice cafes.
Lively outdoor market in Benedektinerplatz, where the stone monument to the fisherman stands.
The brewery is good, very popular and suggestive To Augustine inside the courtyard in Pfarrhofgasse 2 in front of the church of Sant'Egidio, where we had dinner spending about € 30 for two.
We recommend the Kolping hostel, in Enzenbergstrasse 26, clean and modern and just outside the center, to the west: a double with bathroom (separate beds), breakfast included 23 € each.
FRIESACH
It is perhaps the most interesting place in all of Carinthia afterwards Klagenfurt.
Bella la main square where you can park for free for 90 minutes with a parking disc.
Bella la Parish church, the castle with remarkable views and the Dominican church with adjoining abbey are unmissable.
We peeped into a room of the latter and found ourselves in a yarn and weaving factory.
Adjacent to the Dominican abbey are the walls and a beautiful moat on whose waters the wheel of fortune turns.
CURK
Visited in about an hour of visit.
La Dom di Gurk (1200 ca.) is the most important cathedral in Carinthia and one of the most beautiful we have seen.
In the abbey there is the merchandising corner where, in addition to the usual items from Museum shop, the delicacies prepared by the monks are sold, including a good sweet of pistachios and honey and an exquisite digestive liqueur.
BURG HOCHOSTERWITZ
We spent about two hours visiting to admire an amazing castle perched on a spur at more than 700 meters above sea level, well preserved and spectacular for the views.
The entrance ticket costs € 7 to which you must add € 3 if you want to go up with the funicular: an unsteady cabin pulled by a single chain that rocks with every breath.
You can walk down and cross the 14 gates.
The internal museum is interesting: mostly portraits, ancient artifacts and above all armor, among which there is one forged for a two-meter-high soldier that impresses even if the mannequin inside is inanimate!
TRUE KNOWLEDGE
Here too the first 90 minutes of parking are free, with tickets to be collected from the special machine; you pay only for the following minutes.
Interesting the main square, pedestrianized, with the sixteenth-century town hall (Rathaus) with an elegant internal courtyard with three levels of arches that housed a design exhibition.
Curious is the music (of the waiting room or elevator music genre) spread by the loudspeakers in Hauptplatz: it seemed to be in the village of Truman show.
A look also deserves the Hotel St. Veit, colorful and original, which represents one of the landmarks of the town.
We spent a relaxing weekend, full of art, history and timeless natural landscapes, which manage to surprise you every little step you take. I highly recommend it! Until next time.
Photo gallery Carinthia
