Südtirol/Alto Adige: Seiser Alm/Alpe di Suisi

Ha, ha! Funny story! I thought I could fit all the photos of this magical meadow that I wanted to share into one blog post. What a dreamer! As soon as I started seriously sorting through them I knew this was impossible.

So I'm going to show you the best of my scenic shots today. Then next time I'll tell you about how we got up there, how we got around, and cover some other interesting points concerning the area's infrastructure.

The group of peaks in the photo up top is the Langkofel Group. You might remember the little German lesson I imparted when describing our first stroll around Kastelruth/Castelrotto: Kofel means cone-shaped hill or mountain. The eponymous Langkofel peak in the group is the one that's tipped with clouds in my introductory photo (lang means "long" in German).

I probably took fifty pictures of these peaks as the day progressed. Don't worry, I won't show you all of them, but it was hard to pare the collection down to a manageable number. They're so gorgeous! First up, here's a shot from earlier in the day, before the clouds descended...

Langkofel/Sasso Longo is the peak on the left; the wide, flat one on the right is Plattkofel/Sasso Piatto, platt meaning "flat." (I'll show you next time the handy signage that identified the peaks for me.)

Here's a closer-up view...

...one with the ever-photogenic dead tree in the foreground...

...and another look at Langkofel/Sasso Longo with the lowering clouds...

If there's a more handsome group of peaks anywhere, I'd like to see them. As a bonus, after doing some triangulation, we think we determined that these are the peaks we could see from our hotel room window, albeit from a different angle.

Of course, the most wonderful thing about this incredible meadow is that you have gorgeous peaks in every direction, even if the Langkofel are the most photogenic. I made a crude attempt to display at least 180° of this view; you can see the resulting video here.

The views even include, in spite of some haze, rows of mountains that are quite distant...

...and other layers in the mid-distance...

In fact, the very layered-ness of the scenery is one of its most memorable features...

On the other side of the meadow from the Langkofel Group you find the iconic Schlern/Sciliar, which makes such an impressive backdrop to many of my Kastelruth/Castelrotto village photos. We saw it from a few different angles during our hiking day. First, out the window on the bus ride up to the meadow...

...much later in the afternoon, on our hike up the trail that parallels the Panorama Lift (more on the area's lifts next time—yes, the meadow is actually a ski area!)...

...and a view once we'd climbed up level with its summit, on the our hike...

Can you blame this happy tourist for smiling?

Normally you would think that in order to see such spectacularly rugged peaks you'd have to do a lot of rock-climbing. But the beauty of the Seiser Alm/Alpe di Suisi is that it is really a meadow. Which means that you can get these fabulous views from the relative comfort of a gently undulating trail.

Our main hike took the Hexenbänke/Banche delle Streghe trail, one of the most popular, and there were a lot of fellow hikers on it with us. But with such an abundance of lovely space and scenery, we never felt crowded.

The trail makes a large loop, and on its edge away from the main meadow view, you still have fabulous scenery to enjoy. Specifically, you can look down at the valleys flanking the meadow, which are dotted with scenic villages.

I believe this is St. Ulrich, tucked so neatly into its valley

can you guess what town this is? doesn't the bell tower look familiar?

I couldn't help but try to imagine what this amazing scenery would look like blanketed in snow. Fortunately, there was this cool photograph on the wall in our hotel room, showing the Schlern/Sciliar from the Panorama lift, during ski season...

Doesn't that look incredible?! What a place this would be to ski, especially cross-country. Next time I'll show you some of the infrastructure perks on offer for skiers here. 

Of course, getting here would be more expensive than driving to Colorado, but the lift ticket prices seem actually reasonable compared to those at Rockies ski areas (although I'm not sure what all is included; you might have to pay extra for some lifts). Hmmmm...a future vacation idea?