Their peculiarity doesn’t only reside in their way of life, in symbiosis with the mountains, but their special language, the Titzschu, a Germanic language originating from the Saxon emigrations, carrying with them the Viking past and traditions. They have 14 ways of describing a precipice or a cliff hanging, as well as an infinite array of words for all that concerns milk. Till the 1940s this ancient language in these areas was the dominant expression, and today it is kept alive by a few of those living dictionaries, as are considered the elderly.
Their emigration to these parts of the Alps, where no one dared to life, is traceable to the 13th century. These Vikings of the Alps however were not pirates. They settled themselves above the forests of pine and chestnuts, to prevent conflicts with the local populations. Thus making the pastures and mountain tops their habitats, giving them independence and peace. They had no dogs, or animals for transports, and built their houses using exclusively the materials which surrounded them, collectively by the whole village. This is the real Walser heritage which still survives today.
They are simple people who try to preserve their language and in particular their unique cultural heritage, their feeling of being together with the environment. These populations are spread over the whole of the Alps and according to a recent estimate they count about 13 thousand 8 hundred individuals, the majority of whom live in Austria, around 10 thousand. Then comes Italy, with 3 and half thousand then Switzerland. Their main activity is herding cattle for milk and making cheese, which in summer have to be taken to different pastures, to make sure their natural and biological cycle has a change in climate and alimentation.
Lidia and Edoardo Ferla live above Alagna, basically like their ancestors. Their daily rhythms are given by their natural surroundings, the changes in season, the fall of snow and the needs of their cattle, which with their old age advancing have to be fewer and fewer. They live with their cows on the lowest level of the house and the hay in the highest. Their living space in between, where the heat gathers, although when they where children, in winter, they would sleep and live n little rooms next to the cowshed, where the cheese making room now is. In fact, almost everything else in their Walser house is original, from the floors of the cattle shed to the roof in slate. Their daughter lives with them, and although she is also a primary teacher in Alagna, she maintains a strong link with her parents’ work.
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