Lagació Hotel Mountain Residence

We’re pretty unabashed in our admiration for Europe’s modernist ski lodges. But even by that standard, Lagació Mountain Residence stands out. Too often the temptation, once you’ve decided to update the classic Alpine-lodge look, is to take it too far — when ski hotels become little more than high-elevation nightclubs, you’re in danger of forgetting that warmth, both literal and figurative, is the whole point of a mountain hotel.

Here the lines are clean, but the textures still rustic — you’re never far from some knotty pine wood, or an abstract-patterned rug with a bit of a cowhide resemblance. The result is twenty-four apartments — they’re keen on the residential language — which are urbane yet never citified. Even without the Dolomites visible through the vast windows you’d never mistake this for Milan.

A spa with a decidedly active aspect, treating muscles as well as skin, rounds out the offerings — and if it’s tough to tell, out on the slopes, which side of the Italian border you’re on, it’s no mystery at all once you’re in the dining room. It’s oversimplifying matters a bit, but if you had to sum up South Tyrol in a nutshell, Austrian Alps plus Italian cuisine is probably a fair enough approximation.

Please note: Lagació Mountain Residence requires a three-night minimum stay and is closed seasonally from April 7 through June 15 and from October 6 through December 7.

How to get there: Lagació is located approximately 100 km from Bolzano airport (BZO).