"At the end of an hour of steady climbing,
the two girls came to the hamlet
that lies halfway up the Alm
and is called Im Dörfli, or the Little Village.
Here they were greeted
by nearly everyone they met . . . "
Heidi, Chapter 1
Would you like music about Switzerland while you travel through Heidi's alps?
Click here to hear a tune from Hungarian composer Franz Liszt's
"Années de Pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage), Year 1, Switzerland."
Johanna Spyri is the author of Heidi.
She was born on July 12, 1827, at Hirzel,
a pretty little Swiss village
about seven miles from Zurich.
The village stands on a green wooded hill.
Where the forest ends,
you walk through meadows
dotted with fruit trees.
There are flowers everywhere.
In the village the houses are neat and tidy,
with vegetable gardens, and, of course, flowers.
Just outside the village, and still higher up the mountain,
is the white house that belonged to Johanna's parents.
From the house, if you look down over the tops
of the fir trees into the valley,
you can see the great lake of Zurich on one side,
with snow-covered mountains behind it.
Johanna thought her home very beautiful, just as Heidi did.
Here are some photos
of Bernese Mountain dogs
at the Bernese Mountain Dog Club of Switzerland.
Click here to learn about this breed.
Click here to read more about Switzerland.
Click here to go to Ballenberg, the Swiss Open-Air Museum,
to learn about Switzerland as it used to be.
Click here to see models of real Swiss buildings at Swissminiatur.
It's a miniature park of Switzerland!
Click here to see a map of Switzerland.
Heidi is set in the Maienfeld region, just north of Chur.
Click here to see some photos of the Maienfeld region.