The most beautiful high-altitude spa in Italy
At the Alpina Dolomites hotel, mornings are for skiing but afternoons are for self-indulgent wallowing in the resplendent Como Shambhala spa, says Lisa Grainger
Alex Demetz and his father, Emanuel, laugh when they hear that I’m thinking of skiing all day. “So British!” the suave young Italian exclaims over cocktails. “In the Dolomites no one skis all day on holiday. Yes, we will ski all morning with a break for a coffee. But after a long lunch we relax, we swim, we rest, we sauna, then enjoy cocktails and a good dinner. On holiday you need to work out and to play.”
As a fourth-generation hotelier in the Dolomites, Alex has a pretty good feel for what makes guests tick. His great-grandparents created the traditional Gardena Grödnerhof Hotel in the Gardena valley in 1923. When the snowline started to shrink during warmer winters, in 2010 the family decided it was time to build another, the Alpina Dolomites, which — at 1,860m high — not only faces cold Alpe di Siusi slopes but is near snow machines. “It was in this valley that snow-making was made,” Emanuel says, pointing out the snow-makers below, “which is why skiers say it was in Gardena that God was born”.
Looking out of the floor-to-ceiling glass windows that front the 60 rooms of the four-storey contemporary hotel, religious associations come easily. To the left and right the jagged, horned peaks of the Sassolungo Langkofel and Sciliar Schlern jut devilishly into the blue sky. And in between, a wide plateau of virgin snow sparkles in the sunlight before being transformed into a spectacular baby-pink tableau at sunset.
The family’s decision to build a second hotel higher up was smart. Every year the snowfall diminishes; this season, they say, the last good snow fell in January. But even in mid-March, unlike many Alpine resorts, with snow machines they’ve been able to keep going. This is why, in the morning when I head to the spacious boot room, it’s buzzing with skiers from Europe and the US, heading onto runs that range from gentle blues to vertiginous blacks. The Dolomites Superski area is the biggest in the world: 1,200km of slopes, linking 12 resorts. “When I was a child, it was only us Italians that came here,” Emanuel says, wistfully. “Now, the secret — I’m afraid — is out.”
Because the family grew up in the area, it’s no surprise that the hotel’s design was inspired by the alpine surrounds. On the outside the stone-clad, brutalist buildings prickle with giant triangular spikes of wood that mirror the Dolomites’ peaks. Inside, the walls are clad in warm pine, the floors twinkle with local quartzite, the furniture is covered in soft cow’s leather. Even the bar has a “tree” of gin: an old tree trunk adorned with branches on which bottles of local herb-infused alcohol sit.
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Like the interiors, the menus were inspired by the Tyrol, and the wines produced in vineyards nearby. Until the end of the First World War this part of the Dolomites was Austrian, and three quarters of the locals speak German — hence the dirndls worn by staff, the generous spreads of cheese at dinner, and the homespun fruit tarts and cured Tyrolean meats at breakfast. Being part of Italy, there are bowls of truffled pasta or lemon risotto to be enjoyed in its two slope-side restaurants. And because the community is close they’re happy to share the love and recommend friends’ rifugios on the slopes, including the quaint Gostner Schwaige for herb dumplings and homemade schnapps (apparently an aphrodisiac), or steaming mugs of hot spiced apple juice and “ski water” (lemon and raspberry-infused water) on a sunny terrace.
Normally I’d balk at spending an afternoon in a spa if I could ski. The Alpina Dolomites’ spa soon changed that. Spanning a whopping 2,000 sq m, the soothing Como Shambhala spa is fronted by a generous 22m-long glass-fronted pool in which to do proper lengths, then swim outside to be massaged by warm jets of water while inhaling freezing, pine-scented air. There’s an airy yoga room with daily classes; expert masseuses who use rich, effective Como Shambhala unguents; a huge sauna area, with six different steam and sauna pods; and softly lit chilling spaces on which to lie on rocking loungers. And — a first for me — a daily ten-minute “Finnish sauna ritual”, in which the lithe therapist Sabine Platter dances in the spacious sauna, whisking hot air about during a guided meditation, which helps to distract the brain from the feeling that you’re slowly being basted to death.
The spa has proved so popular, I discover when I spot Melissa Ong in reception that the hotelier’s family has bought half of the Alpina Dolomites, and in December will open it as a redesigned Como hotel. It won’t have the charming Alex and Emanuel on tap, but it will, apparently, have even smarter, Paola Navone-designed interiors, adding another layer of Italian charm to the already heady mix.
Details Doubles from €430 BB; alpinadolomites.it
