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Gardeno, a little strong climber with golden hair and Selladilla, the princess of the kingdom of the giants on the Sella massif.

The children's book is available in the tourist offices of Val Gardena and on shop.valgardena.it.

1. In summer, when school was over, a little strong climber with golden hair named Gardeno, left his wooden hut on a tree down in the valley and retired in a cave at the foot of the Sassolungo. Sassolungo has a height of 3181 m and is the highest mountain of the fascinating Val Gardena. Gardeno ate berries, drank herb teas and slept in a bed made of hay. In the cave there was a crystallized quartz that granted Gardeno’s desires as soon as he touched it. As Gardeno loved nature and was in particular fascinated by stones, his greatest desire was to.... Have a look at the next panel on Gardeno’s trail that takes you to his cave.


2. Gardeno’s greatest desire was to find a big amount of sparkling stones. Every evening at bedtime Gardeno went to the quartz, touched it and closed his eyes... And in fact: in the early morning when he got up to pick flowers and herbs for the breakfast tea, he found sparkling stones everywhere. A real miracle. One stone here, one there, over there another one, and another one, really many. Gardeno found calcite, natrolit, quartz, agate, volcanic rock, but the most of all what he found were sparkling stones named "dolomite". Every day he used to put the most beautiful one in his pocket as a lucky charm and spread out the other stones on the flower field in front of his cave. His aim was to find 1000 stones. It was funny. He counted them for days: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, ....12. He counted a little and yodelled a little: "Holleleitttiiiiiii!!!!". The marmot, the fox and the squirrel, Gardeno’s best friends, watched him and smiled and one day they learned to count, too. So the marmot counted the nuts the squirrel had picked, the fox counted the marmot’s whistles and the squirrel counted the hares the fox hunted. And our three friends learned to yodel as well... especially the marmot: "Holleleitttiiiiiii!!!!". Some grazing cows, hearing Gardeno and his friends yodelling, wanted to try it, too, and answered with a loud "muuuhhhh!". One day Selladilla passed by … But who is Selladilla? You can read it at panel nr. 3.


3. Selladilla, the princess of the kingdom of the giants on the Sella massif, was impressed and surprised by the great amount of glittering stones and by the enormous number of colours of the flowers on the meadow. She spread out her most beautiful blanket to have a nap. "Selladilla!", "Selladilla!". The princess looked around, but couldn’t see anybody. Living in her empire she was used to see nothing but giants and Gardeno was a little strong child with golden hair. Once again: "Selladilla!". She couldn’t see anybody, but she took notice of something else: silky flowers on the rock. Selladilla approached and saw wonderful edelweiss. "I would like to see them up close", she thought, "but I don't know how to reach them!" And again she heard a voice saying: "Take a rope". "I don't have any", Selladilla replied. Gardeno, who was in his cave, said "Wait a moment, don't leave!".


4. Gardeno took a long, long rope and called: "Take it". Selladilla couldn't see Gardeno as he was too far away. Nevertheless she clutched at the rope, made a knot like the mountain guides do and started to climb the rock. When the princess saw the edelweiss she was really enchanted by them and as she wanted to touch the flowers she let off the rock and … skipped, uhh!! Fortunately Gardeno, the little strong child with the golden hair, caught the rope and called: "Come on, up here!” Very good! You, too, have almost arrived. Would you like to know how Selladilla’s day turned to the end? You’ll know it in front of Gardeno’s cave.


5. It took Selladilla the whole day to reach the top, but at sunset finally she was on the summit of the mountain. She had never been that high! She was higher than her castle on the Sella massif. From the top of the Sassolungo she could even see the seaside. "Congratulations", Gardeno said. "Thank you", Selladilla replied and kissed the child. Gardeno fell asleep in her arms. The marmot, the fox and the squirrel that were sleeping in Gardeno’s bed this night were delighted for the child. They wondered if it was perhaps the crystallized quartz in the cave at the foot of the Sassolungo that made it possible for Gardeno to meet Selladilla, the princess of the kingdom of the giants. To meet Selladilla, actually, was Gardeno’s second greatest desire.