The latest Winter Olympics put northern Italy back on every serious traveller’s radar. Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo are splitting hosting duties, and the accommodation options in this part of the world have never been more interesting. Not because there are more of them, but because a handful of properties have quietly become some of the best-designed hotels in Europe.
These aren’t the kind of places that hang skis on the wall and call it atmosphere. Across the Italian Alps, from the Dolomites down to the Piedmontese peaks, a new generation of mountain stays has brought in serious design talent to build interiors that work as hard as the scenery outside. If you’re choosing to stay in one of these incredible alpine retreats, you can experience some of Italy’s most uncompromising luxury furniture brands first-hand, from Henge to Edra.
Rosapetra Spa Resort, Cortina d’Ampezzo
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If there’s one property that captures the current mood in Cortina, it’s the Rosapetra Spa Resort. The hotel recently unveiled a suite designed entirely by Henge (the brand’s first complete hospitality project). Cortina is having a moment, and the Rosapetra is more than ready.
Henge works with materials the way good writers work with words: nothing wasted, everything intentional. Stone, metal, wood used not as decoration but as the actual substance of the space. The suite, overseen by designer Isabella Genovese, doesn’t reference the mountains through cliché. No antlers, no folk patterns, no rustic-chic nostalgia. Boiserie panels in H Pale Gold and Apuan Black line the walls, custom furniture shifts between warm greys and dark wood, and the whole thing feels like it could only exist here, but for reasons that have nothing to do with folklore. A 50-square-metre terrace looks straight at the Tofane. The wellness area has a sauna. It’s the kind of room you book and then don’t leave.
Hotel Rosa Alpina, San Cassiano, Alta Badia
Further west, in Alta Badia, the Rosa Alpina sits at 1,537 metres in the Dolomites, UNESCO World Heritage territory since 2009. Three generations of the Pizzinini family have run it; the restaurant holds three Michelin stars, and it’s a member of The Leading Hotels of the World. All of which sounds impressive until you see the new penthouse and realise the credentials are almost beside the point.
Milanese studio Vudafieri-Saverino Partners, working with the hotel since 2008, designed the 160-square-metre top-floor space with the kind of material intelligence that makes a room feel inevitable rather than decorated. Edra furniture throughout: the Standard sofa in pale blue leather, the Pack sofa in dark fabric with its polar bear print (which, in context, lands perfectly), and Jacopo Foggini’s Margherita chair on the terrace, its translucent form doing something interesting against the alpine backdrop. Lighting from Foscarini, Brokis and Flos; mirrors by Gubi. Larch wood throughout. Warm, considered, and completely effortless-looking,which is the hardest thing to pull off.
Rifugio La Marmotta, Sauze d’Oulx
Not all the best design in the Italian Alps comes in five-star packaging. Rifugio La Marmotta, above Sauze d’Oulx in Piedmont, takes the mountain refuge concept and runs it through a properly contemporary design sensibility. Studio AB2ER Architecture chose stone and wood not for their rustic associations but for how they actually behave in this landscape: how they age, how they absorb light, how they feel underfoot.
The lounge, facing a wall of glass with unobstructed mountain views, is furnished from the Moroso range: Happy sofa and chaise longue in dark tobacco leather, Feel Good armchairs and poufs in earth-toned velvets, Guscioalto pieces around a clean-lined fireplace. A space that earns its atmosphere honestly: through material quality, not mood lighting and branded slippers.
The Olympics Sent Everyone to the Italian Alps. These Hotels Are the Real Reason to Stay Longer
Stretching from the Dolomites to the western Alps, the mountain corridor in northern Italy has become one of Europe’s most compelling design destinations. Yes, it’s true, the Olympics brought the crowds, but these hospitality projects showcasing Italian interior design will definitely make visitors want to come back. Whether you’re willing to go for the skiing, the Italian hand-made food or to take a break from city life, these three properties provide an additional incentive to extend your stay.
