Cattle drive in South Tyrol

When the cattle returns from the South Tyrolean alpine pastures, young and old celebrate! During this traditional event cows, sheep, goats and horses return from alpine summer pastures to their stables. Especially the cows are beautifully decorated with wreaths made of alpine roses and mountain pine to ask for divine protection, and with mirrors and cowbells to scare off evil spirits. Usually the cattle drive takes place between mid-September and mid-October. As you might notice, the return of the cattle is a real event, which heralds the start of the cold season.

Of course there are also live folk music, delicacies made by farmwomen such as Krapfen and typical desserts and the "Goasslschnöllen". Famous are above all the cattle drive on the beautiful Siusi Alp and the return of the Haflinger horses on the Renon High Plateau.

The ancient tradition of the transhumance in the Val Senales valley, more precisely in Madonna di Senales, however, is part of the World Heritage List: For centuries already, during this longest-standing and largest movement of sheep in the entire Alpine region, the shepherds and their animals overcome a distance of 44 km between the Oetztal valley in North Tyrol and the Val Senales in South Tyrol, so to speak between two countries, Austria and Italy.