Pontresina -- Life in the High Alps of Switzerland.End Of Day: Workmen engaged on a building site just outside the village stop and pose for a picture by the Pontresina sign-post. The castle-like building in background is the Palace Hotel. - Most of the men are Italian labourers at work here for the season. They only speak Italian. Pontresina, with a population of about 750, employs almost the same number of Italians for seasonal work. such as road-building, farming, manual work connected with house-construction. Note the umbrella one of the men carries. January 22, 1948. (Photo by Pictorial Press).