A feature about the Ladino people from Alto Adige, a special Italian region, inhabited by German language speakers, that got annexed to the rest of Italy after World War One. Ladino people are protected and recognized as a language minority.
I discovered a community counting only 30,000 people living in five valleys in the heart of the Dolomites: their identity is characterized by a neo-Latin language that has resisted for more than two-thousand years.
Among the five valleys I focused my work on Val Badia that with its 90% of the population has the highest concentration of Ladinos.
I met a lot of people, and I came in touch with secular traditions felt by all the population.
The great respect for this wonderful nature surrounding them and the permanence of the alpine agricultural activities, make of the Ladinos some kind of ecologists ante litteram.
The economic prosperity, the use of three different languages and the intellectual vitality characterizing many of its exponents make of it an open minded and hospitable community.