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A cows is pictured on July 28, 2013 around Sesvenna Alpe (2430 meters over sea level) near Malles Venosta/Mals, Italy. As herdswoman Katharina Brueggebors watches over the herd of 300 cattle that she is overseeing for the summer months during the traditional alm summer livestock grazing. Brueggebors, a former hotel chain manager, has no experience in farming but hopes the calm and quiet six months in the Alps living in a traditional alm, which is a small wooden mountain cottage, will provide will help her in reorienting her life. Alm livestock herders regularly hire inexperienced help from many walks of life to help in the summer months, when farmers in valley villages commission the herders to bring the animals up to mountain plateaus to spend the summer months feeding on the grass-rich meadows. Alm tradition in the mountains of Switzerland, Austria, northern Italy and southern Germany goes back centuries and is an integral part of alpine life and agriculture. (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)
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