On the third day of our walking honeymoon we knew we needed to head up to the Alpe di Siusi /Seiser Alm. It is the largest high-altitude alpine meadow in Europe.  This huge area of meadows is at about 1800m above sea level, which means even in summer it is slightly cool and full of spring flowers.

Our next hotel was located Compatsch /Kompatsch so we needed to finish our day at 1844m above sea level. We didn’t really want to retrace our steps and re-climb Mount Bulacia, so we decided to cheat. We took the rope-way up to Compatsch, and then explored some of the Alpe di Siusi.

As we left Kastelruth for the last time, the sky was blue and the whole world was lush and green.

As the previous day we hadn’t taken a close look at the beautiful St Valentin Church, we walked to Seis via this pretty landmark.

Next we had a look around Seis as I mentioned on a previous post, the people that live here are so lucky! It would be great if they had companies that need visual FX artists and Japanese speakers so we could move here and find work!! I wonder if you live here all year round, if you internalise the beautiful views. Maybe even this stunning scenery would become mundane if you see it all the time. Maybe Seis-folks would be impressed by the flatness of Cambridgeshire!?

Anyway, I was most excited about the rope-way and viewing the surrounding Dolomites from new angles. So it wasn’t long before we found ourselves, tickets in hand, ready to board the gondola. I looove rope-ways!! They are so good for seeing stunning views in all directions.

Once we’d made it to Compatsch, we were far too early to check into our hotel. Therefore we looked at our map and chose a walking loop that would show us the Alpe di Siusi. We chose to add a bit of a climb by heading up to Mount Seuc. This was the perfect chance for us to see the surrounding Dolomites in the sun and choose good walks for the next few days.

It is quite strange to be up at such a high altitude when the view looks more like lowlands. We first took a stroll over the rolling hills and alpine meadows. Eventually we made it to the foot (well…I say foot…but we were already at about 1800m!) of Mount Seuc. There was a hotel near the bottom that had donkeys and alapacas roaming around. From there, the climb to the top of the mountain was only a few hundred meters. Even so, most people seemed to ignore the path and head for another rope-way, so our route to the top was pretty quiet. The peak is 2006m, so it’s not too much of a slog when you start so high!!

After we had wandered to the peak of Mount Seuc, we made the most of the rope-way station’s restaurant. I don’t think I have ever had such gorgeous food at the top of a mountain. The views and dumplings were both spectacular.

It is brilliant just to look down at the stunning Alpe di Siusi scenery and Dolomites. In particular, I was excited by the possibility of walking up two of these mountains. The first was the amaaazing long ridge walk along Schlern/Sciliar. She’d been hiding in the cloud over the last couple of days, but was now visible under a blue sky. The shape of the mountains look quite different from the Alpe di Siusi, compared to the view from Kastleruth. But I was just desperate to get up there if we could!

The other is the impressive, spiky Plattkofel/Sasplat. The shape of the mountain is unlike anything I have seen before so I was really, really keen to see it close up.

The thing I loved most about the Alpe di Siusi is the huge range of gorgeous wild flowers growing throughout the grasslands. I took plenty of photos, but I do not know what most of these flowers are called. Please do let me know in the comments if you know the names of some of these pretties!!