Why you need to visit South Tyrol's 19 Michelin-starred restaurants

Cartoon snail erotica adorns the bathroom walls, a wicker pram cradles bottles of grappa and the restaurant houses memorabilia dedicated to the memory of Franz Joseph I, Austria’s longest-reigning emperor. This is the world of Onkel Taa, the ramshackle family-run former spa which has almost mythical status in South Tyrol, the region of northern Italy on the border of Austria and Switzerland.

Locals refer to its owner, Karl Platino, as “Schneckenkönig”, the snail king — he has been amassing his collection since he was a boy. He points out everything from eagle talons used to cut cigars to a spring water stream dating to Roman times and a 150 million-year-old snail fossil from the Dolomites.

Snails are everywhere you turn. The psychedelic gardens contain a snail farm, where they are bred for the cooking pot. Mercifully there isn’t a shell in sight for my cooking class with chef Janett, Platino’s daughter who runs the kitchen with her mother. Janett is on a mission to revive ancient dishes from South Tyrol, serving comfort food with a contemporary touch. We make Austrian knodel adapted from a 1685 recipe — flat dumplings made with stale bread and served with sage butter and wild flowers — followed by Kaiserschmarrn “emperor’s mess”. This bread-and-butter-pudding-meets-pancakes combines vanilla sugar, rum-soaked sultanas, cranberry jam and buttermilk gelato.

South Tyrol now boasts 26 Michelin stars across 19 restaurants, making it Italy’s most decorated province. St Hubertus recently became Italy’s only three Michelin-starred establishment.

“Now chefs are open to trying new things,” says Janett, adding that cuisine in the region is not as heavy as it once was. Sauces are lighter and regional produce is more important than ever.

Culinaria im Farmerkreuz, a Michelin-starred restaurant run by brothers Manfred and Stefan, has a tasting menu as headline-worthy as the views overlooking the spa town of Merano — it includes canapés of organic foie gras with sherry jelly and silky slivers of lardo, quail with salt leek and celery, blushing duck with cassis and a lick of liquorice from parsley root. Exceptional produce helps. Head to the Pur Südtirol shops, where families chat over antipasti boards of regional specialities.

South Tyrol basks in a Mediterranean climate. The capital, Bolzano, has very cold winters but is one of Italy’s hottest locations in summer. The terroir changes every 10 kilometres, making for an exciting wine industry, with 20 grape varieties and 150 wineries. Seek out Nals Margreid — its award-winning Pino Bianco is unmissable.

Italian is the language of choice in cities, but in the forests and mountains German dominates. But though the locals may not agree when it comes to vernacular, they see eye-to-eye when it comes to food. “If someone gives up their spoon, it’s when they die,” says Janett. I can see why.

Details:South Tyrol

BA (ba.com) flies from Heathrow to Innsbruck from £126 one way. Doubles at Hotel Miramonti (hotel-miramonti.com) from €85 per person, per night. suedtirol.info