Aosta · Italy

Coming down from the high pasture

Towards the end of September the herds come down from the high pastures, and the valley notices. The cows cross the villages in file, wearing the large bells kept for the occasion, and at the head of them the reina carries a bouquet of flowers and branches on her horns. This is the désarpa, the return. The date is not sentimental: they come down when the grass up there is finished and before the first snow closes the pastures, and a farmer settles it by watching the sky and counting the fodder put by for winter. Behind the procession lie a hundred days of work at altitude, milk drawn twice a day and carried to the dairy, wheels of fontina left to mature. The column you see passing is the moment a season closes and the accounts come down to the valley with the animals.

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Why is the reina decorated?

Because she is the cow that leads the herd, and the procession respects the order the animals gave themselves in spring. The bouquet on her horns announces that rank to anyone watching the file go past. In many families it is made the evening before, with flowers, fir branches and ribbons, and the job often falls to the children. The decoration is not for the animal: it is for the person at the roadside who recognises at a glance which herd this is.

When can I see it?

Between the end of September and the first days of October, varying by a few weeks with the year and the altitude of the pasture. Some communes have turned the return into a festival with a market and dates fixed in advance; elsewhere the herd simply comes down when the time arrives, early in the morning, with nobody announcing it. Given the choice, the second is the better of the two. In either case it is worth leaving the road clear and standing at the edge: the cows know the route better than the drivers do.

And in spring?

In spring the reverse happens, and it is called the inarpa: the herds go up, usually between June and the first days of July, following the grass as it grows behind the retreating snow. The ascent is less festive than the descent, because nobody yet knows how the season will go. It is also the moment the cows settle among themselves who is in charge, which in this valley has become a championship with arenas and a crowd.

Where it is

45.7378, 7.3168 · Open in Maps

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