Fifty-seven square kilometres of alpine meadow at 1 850 m, with the Sassolungo and Sciliar massifs rising on either side. Wooden cabins, larch forest, no neighbours.
Alpe di Siusi (Seiser Alm in German) is the largest high-altitude meadow in Europe – 57 km² of rolling alpine pasture at around 1 850 m, with wooden malga cabins scattered across it, the Sassolungo group rising to the east and the Sciliar plateau to the south. It is a working pasture, not a viewpoint, which means there is no single famous shot. The best frames come from picking a cabin, walking until you find the right relationship between foreground, mid-ground and the Sassolungo skyline behind.
The catch is access. Between 09:00 and 17:00 from June through October, private cars are banned from the access road. The two real options are: take the cable car up from Siusi (Seis am Schlern) for the day, or book overnight at a hotel on the plateau and drive up before 09:00. Sunrise is the best light – the sun comes over the Sassolungo ridge from the east and side-rakes the meadow grass, with mist often sitting in the valleys until 08:00.
Drag to compare · Alpe di Siusi, edited with Alpine 02
Two windows work for photography. June and October. Everything outside May–October is closed, frozen, or visually wrong – skip those months.
Two angles about 600 m apart. One open meadow with airspace for the drone, one higher viewpoint that gets more foreground depth in the frame.
From Bolzano: ~40 min east on SS12 then SP24 to Siusi (Seis am Schlern). From Cortina: ~1.5 hr.
Siusi cable car parking: €5/day, ~300 cars. The cable car runs 08:00-19:00 summer.
Cable car: ~€20 return. Drives the road restriction – if you want to drive up, you need to be there before 09:00 and stay overnight.
Car ban: Private cars are banned on the access road from Siusi to the plateau between 09:00 and 17:00, daily, from early June through late October. Enforcement is strict.
Working around it: Either (1) take the cable car up for the day, or (2) book overnight at a hotel on the plateau – they issue a permit code that lets you drive up before 09:00 and stay overnight. Many photographers do option 2 specifically for sunrise.
Drone use: The plateau is in a nature park (Sciliar-Catinaccio). Drones are restricted near the cable car stations and busy paths. Check current park rules before flying – they tighten every year.
Every photo on this page was edited with a preset from my Lightroom Alpine pack. Six presets per pack, calibrated for high-contrast alpine light, real RAW files behind every preview. 30-day refund if it's not for you.
Photographer's guides to other spots I've shot, same treatment as this one.
Best in October · 5 min walk
GuideBest in September · 2 hr hike
GuideBest in September · cable car
GuideBest in September · 2 hr hike
GuideBest in September · 40 min walk + toll road
GuideBest in July · 1 978 steps
GuideBest in August · 2 hr hike
GuideBest in late April · 2 hr hike