On the Seiser Alm, children grow up free of care in the midst of the breathtakingly beautiful countryside.
Beautiful, wild and free The Seiser Alm is a well-known and a much-loved day-trip and holiday destination. ALPE wanted to find out how it feels to live and work on the beautiful high-mountain plateau all year round.
O On a scale of 1 to 10, how nice is it to live on the Seiser Alm? “Eleven,” Frieda bursts out. Cristian nods in agreement. “Eleven, for sure,” Maria concurs. The “Alplers” whom ALPE is visiting are of one mind: There is no more beautiful place in the world. “Alplers” is the name given to all those who have been brought up and live on the mountain plateau, of whom there are currently around 150 of all ages. The “Dörflers” on the other hand, are the villagers from Castelrotto, the main town of the local area. And then there comes the rest of the world, who the locals are delighted to come into contact with as holidaymakers but otherwise, the further away they are the better. Modern-day life is hectic and not always kind to people. Here on the Seiser Alm – which, at 56 square kilometres, is Europe’s largest high mountain plateau – the world is still a good, straightforward place. Nature might be a bit unpredictable
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now and again, but the Alplers all learn to live in the heart of this fascinating mountain landscape from childhood onwards. “Our kids are wild kids,” says Martina. “They play outside in the mud, chase the hens and run the sheep off their feet. It can get stressful at times, but it’s a nice life and couldn’t be healthier.” When Greta and Daniel look back on their carefree childhood on the Alpine pastures, their eyes light up. Young adults now, they live in a particularly remote part of the Alm, and wouldn’t swap their lives with anybody. “We didn’t miss out on anything,” they agree. And when Christian thinks of his own childhood decades ago, and of his own children, he remembers how difficult it was to bring the carefree summer life on the mountains to an end in autumn, when he had to go back to school in the village. Here in the heights, children’s freedom knew no bounds. And things are no different today. »
Text: Elisabeth Augustin Photo: Helmuth Rier
Winter | ALPE 7