Italy
Alpe di Siusi
Europe's largest high-altitude meadow, wildflowers to the horizon beneath Dolomite spires.
The meadow stretches so far you lose its edges. Gentian, arnica and clover shift in waves under a wind that smells of cut grass and warm stone. Behind it all, the Sassolungo and the Sciliar rise like stage sets against a sky that seems too close.
The Alpe di Siusi is Europe's largest high-alpine pasture, 56 square kilometres rolling between 1,680 and 2,350 metres in South Tyrol. Daytime traffic is restricted, so arrival is by cable car and the grassland belongs to walkers, hay carts and wind. Ladin-speaking communities still farm the plateau, their huts scattered across it like punctuation, and mountain kitchens sit at comfortable walking intervals. In winter the same immensity converts into one of the Alps' finest cross-country skiing plateaus beneath the UNESCO-listed peaks.
Family
Children can run on grassland that seems to have no end, cable cars do the altitude, and the huts serve portions built for outdoor appetites.
Couple
Walk until the only sound is cowbells, take a rifugio lunch, and stay for the Dolomites turning pink at dusk.
Solo
The trail network suits long, meditative days; in winter the cross-country skis carry the same solitude across snow.
Friends
Bikes in summer or skinny skis in winter: the meadow's scale lets a group cover ground all day without retracing a metre.
- At 56 square kilometres between 1,680 and 2,350 metres, this is Europe's largest high-alpine pasture.
- Daytime vehicle restrictions keep the plateau essentially car-free; cable cars do the climbing.
- Mountain huts sit at walking intervals across the grass, so the day needs no base camp.
- In winter the whole meadow converts to cross-country skiing beneath the same peaks.
Schlutzkrapfen, spinach-and-ricotta half-moons, come slicked in browned butter at the huts.
Spätzle, rough-scraped buckwheat dumplings, arrive buttered beside the plateau's cheeses.
Lake Matheson
New Zealand
Tannic black water that mirrors Aoraki so sharply the reflection outdoes the peak.
Naltar Valley
Pakistan
Three lakes cycling through turquoise, emerald, and sapphire depending on the angle of light.
Fairy Meadows
Pakistan
A wildflower carpet at 3,300 metres where Nanga Parbat's killer face fills the entire sky.
Skardu
Pakistan
Sand dunes and glacial lakes sharing the same valley floor beneath Karakoram granite walls.
Val d'Orcia
Italy
Cypress-lined roads through golden fields, the landscape Renaissance painters used as their backdrop.
Favignana
Italy
A butterfly-shaped island of abandoned tuna traps and coves carved from pale stone quarries.
Burano
Italy
Every house a different colour on a lagoon island where lacemakers still work by windows.
Procida
Italy
Pastel houses stacked above a fishing harbour that no car can reach.