Shepherd’s delight: the young Italian nomads high in the Dolomites – photo essay

Renowned photographers Bruno Zanzottera and Elena Dak spent a year following a shepherding family and their flock across mountainous pastures. Words by Bruno Zanzottera, Elena Dak and Tom Levitt

Alice and Fabio have been nomadic shepherds for almost 10 years, taking their sheep every year from pastures high in the Dolomites to and from the Po valley, a large expanse of agricultural landscape in northern Italy.

Between June and September, they move around various pastures in the Dolomites, but when the weather starts to get cold, they take their flock of about 1,000 to the lowlands.

Fabio drives his flock of 1,000 sheep through the Fochet pastures in the Belluno Dolomites