Heidi is perhaps the most famous piece of Swiss literature to non-Swiss people. Spyri’s take of a girl living with her grandfather, being sold to a rich family in Frankfurt, and then returning to the mountains due to homesickness has been turned into major motion pictures all around the world. It has been turned into over two dozen films and a major Japanese cartoon show that has been translated back into German.
Maienfeld 
Maienfeld
Apart from the borrowing and re-borrowing of literature, the area around Maienfeld has also been renamed to Heidiland to show a probable area where the original may have been based in. The steep slopes lead up to village homes and are directly opposite snowy peaks across the Rhine valley. The hike up is quite demanding on the ankles, but if you take the bus up then you wouldn’t feel like Heidi.
Chicken 
Goats
“Heidi, Heidi, deine Welt sind die Berge”
At the museums, there is a recreation of the grandfather’s home, an exhibition on life in the Alps and what an Alpine hut looks like, as well as a museum with information on films and TV portrayals of the story. The gift shop cum post office is reasonably priced and sells feed for you to pet goats and chickens.
Down in the town of Maienfeld, the narrow cobblestone streets really do look like the streets where Heidi and her aunt were ridiculed for going to visit her isolated grandfather. There’s also a town church, but I’m not sure if the local reverend displays the same conservative attitudes as the one in the book.
