Encountering idyllic alpine scenery and mystical gorges on the trail
of a timeless classic.
By Julian Mattocks
Photographs Courtesy Julian Mattocks
From a viewpoint, my daughter and I look out across the verdant vineyards of the Bündner Herrschaft and the forested mountains beyond as the Rhine Valley starts to spread out beneath us. A world-famous book serves as a fitting guide as we gulp in the fresh mountain air and continue up from the “old and pleasantly situated village of Maienfeld”: “A footpath winds through green and shady meadows to the foot of the mountains, which on this side look down from their stern and lofty heights upon the valley below. The land grows gradually wilder as the path ascends, and the climber has not gone far before he begins to inhale the fragrance of the short grass and sturdy mountain-plants, for the way is steep and leads directly up to the summits above.” So begins Johanna Spyri’s best-selling children’s classic, Heidi, which was published as Heidis Lehr- und Wanderjahre (Heidi: Her Years of Wandering and Learning) between 1880 and 1881. Even though it was almost 150 years ago that the author visited the area on several occasions, the descriptions are so vividly apt that it’s as if she’s there with us today.
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