Heidiland: On the trail of a children’s classic in the Swiss Alps

“The pretty little Swiss town of Mayenfeld lies at the foot of a mountain range, whose grim rugged peaks tower high above the valley below. Behind the town a footpath winds gently up to the heights and the air is fragrant with the scent of mountain flowers from the rich pastureland higher up. One sunny June morning, a tall sturdy young woman was climbing up the path. She had a bundle in one hand and held a little girl about five years old by the other.”

So starts the story of Heidi by Johanna Spyri, the multi-million best-selling children’s book that’s been translated into 55 languages and spawned a multitude of TV and film spin-offs. And one sunny June morning, 142 years after its first publication, I’m climbing that same path, from the town of Maienfeld in Switzerland’s Rhine valley to Heididorf – Heidi’s village in the Alps. The road is steep, but the sun is bright on the jagged mountain peaks rising ahead of me.

Mention Heidi to pretty much anyone and they’ll start to babble about Peter and goats, Clara and grandfather and a wheelchair pushed down a mountain. Heidi, surely the happiest child in the world, is plunged into despair when she’s sent away from her beloved grandfather, mountain and goats to be a companion to the sickly Clara in Frankfurt. Joy, pain, love and longing: this story has it all. Thankfully, it also has a happy ending as – spoiler alert! – Heidi comes home, Clara is healed and the wonder of life on the mountain continues.

Now, just like Heidi on her way back home to her grandfather, I’m climbing higher into the Alps as the houses, shops and pretty cafes of Maienfeld give way to lush vineyards and fields of chocolate-coloured cows. Like Heidi, I can see the twin peaks of Falkniss and snow-covered Scesaplanta ahead, the green valley spreading out behind me. After 30 minutes of walking, the tinkle of bells from goats high up on the slopes welcomes me to the village.

Heidi, sadly, didn’t exist outside Johanna Spyri’s imagination, but the area where her story is set did and was visited many times by the author, whose good friend Amalia lived here. A country girl herself, Johanna wrote Heidi when she was married and living in Zurich, pining for the fresh mountain air. I inhale big gulps of it now, sitting in the shade of a large tree overlooking the valley, a few friendly hens pecking around my feet.

This tree would have been a young sapling when Johanna first visited in the mid 1800s and…