Seiser Alm

Following one of my earlier posts about the Palmenhaus I want to show you an image that’s similar in terms of abstraction. Also this image is about nature as well. I love framing my surroundings in a way that makes it hard to exactly find out what you are actually seeing. And this image is no exception.

1/1996, f/1.8, ISO 20, 3.99 mm, iPhone 7

This image was taken during a hike on the vast meadows of the Seiser Alm in South Tyrol close to Kastelruth. It is early July 2019 and we are lucky that all the myriads of flowers amidst these grasslands are still blooming. In the recent years the cutting happend in late June already, so there wouldn’t have been much to see. But this year was different. Tiny flowers woven to a dense carpet are everywhere beneath our feet.

I’m really not good at identifying all these flowers by name so I have more time for an overview and really get an impression of the full picture. And it’s so breathtaking in all its little details. The Alpe di Siusi is about 2000 m above sea level, so it’s significantly high which defines the vegetation up there. Because of the height and wouldn’t it be the Sciliar-Catinaccio Nature Park the meadows would be just sparsely populated by flowers. Since 2009 the Seiser Alm has also become a Natural World Heritage site.

We made a daytrip around the Puflatsch, one of the gentle hills of the Seiser Alm, and I had the chance to glance this little valley with flowers reaching from a deep and dark green to a bright yellow, some little white dots completing the image. And these images are not the exception, they are almost the rule if you happen to be at the right place to the right time. Remember that image from my recent trip to Frankfurt from Vincent van Gogh? It’s so similar in terms of color, almost pointillistic.

Up on the Seiser Alm there are some nice hotels for you to stay. Normally you are not allowed to drive up there by car, you have to use the cable car or park your car at the entrance to the heritage. But as a hotel guest you are able to use your car and stay up there as long as you want. Especially in the early mornings and the evenings the panorama is breathtaking. All you can hear are the cow bells, everything else is just quiet. How wonderful.