Fifty-six square kilometres of rolling meadows at 1,800-2,200 metres, with Sassolungo and Sciliar as stage wings: the Alpe di Siusi is Europe's largest high-altitude plateau, a sea of grass dotted with hay barns that in winter becomes a gentle ski area and in summer a paradise of trails, e-bikes and mountain huts where dumplings are religion.
Private traffic is banned by day: you ride up by gondola from Siusi or bus from Castelrotto, and that is part of the magic.
Our tip: dawn from Compatsch toward the Sassolungo, meadows glowing pink, repays the alarm clock; late June brings peak bloom. Stop at a hut for speck and alpine cheese: it is half the experience.