Alpe di Siusi: A Gentle Guide to Europe's Largest Meadow

Most great mountain views in the Alps ask something of you first: a climb, a scramble, a long day on your feet. Alpe di Siusi — Seiser Alm in German — does not. You step out of a cable car at around 1,850 metres and the view is simply there, already arranged: a vast meadow of hay and wildflowers rolling away in soft green waves, dotted with dark wooden barns, and behind it the pale towers of the Dolomites standing up like a stage set.

This is the largest high alpine pasture in Europe, roughly 50 square kilometres of grazing land lying between about 1,680 and 2,350 metres in South Tyrol, northern Italy. It is part of the Sciliar–Catinaccio Nature Park and of the Dolomites, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2009 for their scenery and geology. On a clear morning you can pick out the Sassolungo, the Sciliar, the Sella group and, far off, the glacier of the Marmolada.

What makes it unusual for travellers who no longer want steep ground is that the plateau is nearly flat. The main track across it is a wide, mostly surfaced farm road with gentle rises, served by lifts and small buses. You can have a full Dolomites day here and walk only as much as you feel like walking.

A little history

Alpe di Siusi was not always open grassland. It was forest once, and people began clearing it for cattle as far back as the Bronze Age. What you see today — meadow, scattered larches, low wooden hay barns — is the result of three thousand years of summer grazing, and it is still working land. The plateau is divided into many small plots belonging to farms in the valley below, and in July you will hear mowers and see hay drying on racks.

The oldest way up is a Roman mule path that still climbs from the village of Siusi to the plateau. For centuries that was the route for cattle, cheese and hay. Shepherds and dairymaids spent whole summers up here in simple huts, which is why so many of today's mountain inns carry old farm names.

The landscape also carries older marks. Scattered across the meadows are erratic boulders — blocks of dolomite carried down and dropped by glaciers long ago, now sitting incongruously in the grass and protected as natural monuments. And then there are the legends. The Sciliar massif that looms over the plateau was said in local folklore to be a meeting place of witches, who gathered to dance on strange stone formations now known as the Witches' Benches. In 1975 the eastern part of the plateau was taken into the Sciliar Nature Park, which is why it has stayed so remarkably free of buildings.

Erratic dolomite boulders, left by ancient glaciers, on the Zitzewiese meadow of the Seiser Alm.

What to see

Compatsch, the front door

Compatsch (Compaccio) is the small cluster of hotels, cafés and lift stations at the top of the cable car from Siusi, and for most visitors it is where the day begins. Walk two minutes away from the buildings and you are already alone with the view. There are benches, deckchairs set out in the grass, and a wide terrace of meadow that falls away towards the south.

The plateau track to Saltria

The classic outing is the broad track that crosses the plateau from Compatsch to the hamlet of Saltria, roughly 5 to 6 kilometres with only gentle ups and downs. It is the single easiest way to feel the scale of the place: meadows on both sides, cows, little chapels, and the Sassolungo growing steadily larger ahead of you. Mountain inns along the way mean you are never more than twenty minutes from a coffee and a chair. Best of all, a small bus runs between Saltria and Compatsch, so you can walk one way and ride back.

Sassolungo and Sasso Piatto

These two peaks — Langkofel and Plattkofel in German — close off the north-east end of the plateau and are the photograph everyone comes for: sheer grey rock rising straight out of soft green pasture, with no foothills in between. Late afternoon light is kindest. At sunrise and sunset the Dolomite walls, and especially the Catinaccio to the south, can turn rose and copper — the phenomenon South Tyroleans call the enrosadira.

The Bullaccia and the Witches' Benches

From Compatsch a chairlift lifts you onto the Bullaccia (Puflatsch), the grassy hump at the northern edge of the plateau. From the top station a mostly easy path leads along the rim to the Witches' Benches, flat slabs of rock set like seats above a steep drop, with a long view over the Val Gardena. The full circuit takes around two to three hours; you can also simply walk fifteen minutes to the first viewpoint and turn back well satisfied.

Mont Sëuc, the balcony over Val Gardena

The other cable car arrives from Ortisei at Mont Sëuc, on the plateau's northern lip. The walk from here down into the open meadows towards Compatsch is gentle and almost continuously beautiful, and the terrace at the top station alone is worth the ride.

Pasture on the Seiser Alm with the Langkofel (Sassolungo) group behind.

The most comfortable ways to enjoy the scenery

Alpe di Siusi is unusually well set up for people who want views without exertion, largely because cars are kept out.

• The Alpe di Siusi cable car from Siusi/Seis to Compatsch is the quickest and simplest arrival: a smooth ride of about a quarter of an hour, climbing some 800 metres, with free and paid parking at the valley station.
• The Ortisei–Mont Sëuc cable car takes about ten minutes from the centre of Ortisei and has a garage at the bottom. It puts you on the quieter northern side of the plateau.
• Chairlifts from Compatsch — including the one onto the Bullaccia — gain height for you and turn a hard walk into an easy one.
• Shuttle buses run across the plateau between Compatsch and Saltria in the main season, which is what makes one-way walking possible.
• Open meadow seating. Many of the mountain inns put out loungers and deckchairs facing the peaks. Sitting still here, with cowbells and nothing else, is a genuine activity.

A note that matters for planning: in high season the access road up to Compatsch is closed to uphill private traffic for most of the day, roughly from mid-morning until late afternoon, and the car parks on the plateau must be reserved online in advance. Driving down is allowed at any time. Guests staying in a hotel up on the plateau are given a permit. In practice, the cable car is easier than fighting the rules.

Open meadow and walking areas on Alpe di Siusi.

A day trip nearby

Two outings sit right on the doorstep, and neither needs a long drive.

Castelrotto (Kastelruth) lies just below the plateau, about 10 to 15 minutes from the cable car station. It is a pretty, almost flat village centre under a tall bell tower, famous for the frescoes painted across its house fronts — a fashion begun by the local artist Eduard Burgauner in the early twentieth century. Cafés, a few good shops, and plenty of benches. An easy half day.

Ortisei (Urtijëi), in the Val Gardena, is roughly 20 to 30 minutes away by road. Its centre is largely pedestrian and level, and the valley's long woodcarving tradition fills the shop windows with carved wooden figures. It is also where the second cable car to the plateau starts, so you can combine the two.

If you have a spare day and like trains, Bolzano is around 45 minutes to an hour down the valley. From a point near the station a cable car climbs to the Renon (Ritten) plateau in about a quarter of an hour, where you can board the Rittner Bahn, a narrow-gauge mountain railway running since 1907 — the last of its kind in South Tyrol. It is scenery with almost no walking at all.

The Dolomites of Val Gardena and the Seiser Alm, seen from Mont de Sëura.

Honest advice for comfortable travel

• The altitude is real. Compatsch sits at roughly 1,850 metres. Most people feel nothing worse than slight breathlessness on the first day, but take that day gently, drink more water than usual, and do not plan your longest walk for the morning you arrive.
• Where to stay to avoid long walks. Sleeping in Siusi or Castelrotto puts you minutes from the cable car with shops and restaurants on the flat. Staying in a hotel up on the plateau itself is the most comfortable option of all — you wake inside the view, you get a driving permit, and you avoid the daily journey up and down.
• The ground is easy but not level. The main plateau track is wide and mostly surfaced, with gentle gradients rather than steps. Side paths can be stony and uneven. Walking poles and shoes with grip are worth bringing.
• Walk one way, ride the other. The combination of lifts and plateau buses means almost no walk here has to be a round trip. Plan it that way from the start.
• Mind the weather and the sun. At this height the sun is strong even when the air is cool, and afternoon thunderstorms are common in July and August. Set off early, carry a warm layer and a rain jacket, and check the forecast the evening before.
• Shade is scarce. The plateau is open meadow. A hat and sunglasses matter more than you would expect.
• Check the lift calendar. Both cable cars close for several weeks in spring and again in late autumn. Arriving in those gaps means a drive or a bus instead.
• Two languages, one place. Every name here comes in German and Italian, and Ladin too in the Val Gardena. Siusi is Seis, Compatsch is Compaccio, Sassolungo is Langkofel. Signs may use either, so note both.

What to eat

South Tyrolean cooking is Alpine rather than Mediterranean, and the mountain inns on the plateau do it very well — hearty, unfussy, and served at wooden tables with a view.

Look for Schlutzkrapfen, half-moon pasta parcels usually filled with spinach and ricotta, finished with butter and grated cheese; and canederli, the big bread dumplings known in German as Knödel, served either in clear broth or on their own with melted butter. Speck, the region's smoked and air-dried cured ham, turns up on sliced-wood platters with rye bread and pickles. Barley soup is a standard and a good light lunch.

For dessert, Kaiserschmarrn — a fluffy pancake torn into pieces, dusted with icing sugar and eaten with berry or apple compote — is almost obligatory, and generous enough to share. Apple strudel is the other classic. South Tyrol also makes excellent crisp white wines, and most huts pour them by the glass.

Getting there

Our verdict

Alpe di Siusi is one of the few places in the high Alps where the scenery seems to have been laid out with comfort in mind. The hard work of gaining height is done by a cable car; the plateau itself is soft, open and almost level; and a bus is waiting when your legs have had enough. You are not looking at the Dolomites from a distance — you are standing in the middle of them, on grass, with a coffee within reach.

Go in late June or early July for the flowers, or in late September and October for golden larches, clear air and empty paths. Stay below in Siusi or Castelrotto for convenience, or up on the plateau for the privilege of seeing the peaks turn pink before breakfast. Either way, give yourself more days than you think you need and spend at least one of them doing almost nothing. This is a place that rewards sitting still.

European larches at dusk on the Siusi alp, near the Sassolungo range.

“Here the mountains do not have to be climbed — the meadow carries you right up to their feet.”

Photo credits

• Sassolungo from Alpe di Siusi: Roberto Monti, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Cepei Zitzewiese Seiser Alm Südtirol: This Photo was taken by Wolfgang Moroder . Feel free to use my photos, but pleas, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Mont de Sëuc cun Saslonch pastura: This Photo was taken by Wolfgang Moroder . Feel free to use my photos, but pleas, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Alpe Di Siusi open meadow area: mendhak, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Dolomites Val Gardena from Mont de Seura Mont de Seuc: This Photo was taken by Wolfgang Moroder . Feel free to use my photos, but pleas, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Alberi AlpediSiusi: Llorenzi, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons