Alto Adige, weekend under the stars, hotels, addresses and things to do

This article about South Tyrol published in issue 37 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until September 10, 2024.

The beauty of certain places is that they give you things you didn’t even know you wanted. So when at dawn Bernadette puts a pretty Zen-like bowl in my hand and says enthusiastically in barely Prussian Italian (not South Tyrolean, she’s German): “Hot vegetable broth!” I’m ready to run away unseen toward the slices of apple strudel as big as tiles that I’ve been aiming for at the breakfast buffet, near the barrel of whipped cream. Too late, she’s seen me.

The Cyprianerhof hotel in Tires (Bolzano), with its spectacular skyline: the Catinaccio group, Rosengarten in German.

Luckily, because the broth, light, evanescent, is a marvel. It tastes of the mountains, perhaps of hay, of expert hands: whatever it contains (“Only vegetables, picked last night, and some herbs from here”), it makes you feel great. After all, we have just walked without shoes in the woods in a small group of friendly strangers of all ages, and we are returning, treading in single file across a meadow heavy with night dew.

Two of the three independent chalets at the Hotel Pfösl in Nova Ponente (Val d’Ega).

It is the final phase of the wellness awakening offered every morning (and every evening, for those who are passionate about it) by Nature Hotel Pfoeslin Nova Ponente. We are in Eggental, less than half an hour by car from Bolzano, which I reached by train from Milan (calculate 4 hours. The train is also convenient from Rome: less than 5 hours). «An energetic place with plenty of space for you“, says the writing on their website. A conscious modesty, because this Alpine hotel occupies a green expanse – remarkable: 35 hectares – with the triad of peaks in the area in front, Catinaccio, Latemar And Schlernnot only has it been awarded the Alto Adige sustainability mark and boasts a string of environmental hospitality certificates, but it has also been created from a large ancient farm, the Alpine farms, which remains protected as a historic building, reworked by the architect duo Michaela Wolf And Gerd Bergmasterwho used wood and landscape
to create indoor and outdoor pools, bio-lakes (you can swim in them!), panoramic saunas – there are 8 of them, with all kinds of local essences –, large windows and lit eco-fireplaces. Their rooms and chalets, some independent, are rightly famous. Mine is new, one of the Eco Lofts, with
the very high walls made entirely of wood, an infrared sauna on the roof and a large minimalist bed that looks out, as if you were sleeping in the middle of the meadow.
If it’s true that in hotels it’s what you find in your room that tells you where you’ve arrived, here there’s a mountaineering backpack, an untouched professional yoga mat, the obligatory spa bag with a bathrobe and slippers of fairy-tale softness, mountain flowers and several fresh apples.

The Peter Anich solar observatory and the Max Vallier star observatory, the only ones in South Tyrol, are located just a few metres from each other in San Valentino in Campo in Val d’Ega (Bolzano; eggental.com; southtyrol.info).

Arriving at the attic-observatory with private garden, terrace and padded loungers («only natural fibres, vegan-friendly») that houses an infrared sauna, you wonder how much this decidedly 5-star Alpine accommodation costs. In times of three zeros, the eco-design castle surprises: from 220 euros per person.
The owner Brigitte Zelger, expert herbalist and landscaper, tells me about the immense backstage work behind a nature hotel, made of a thousand tricks. Little meat, of nearby origin, no coming and going of trucks but (real) agreements with farmers, quality of sleep with investments in bed, sheets, silence and light. And a detail housekeeping for everyone: here each room has its own cleaning set, 60 rooms for 60 buckets, sponges and everything, so if a guest has the flu the bacteria are not carried into another room.

The Natur Hotel Pfosl in Nova Ponente, Val d’Ega, seen from the garden: the architects Wolf and Bergmeister have integrated

The days in Val d’Ega travel protected, slow and relaxing, between a trip to the nearby Tiers Valley to dine with a view of the spectacular Hotel Cyprianerhof of the young chef Monika Damian, and
the proof of the Mindfulllatemar, the first immersive trail of mindfulness born in the Alps: 18 stages, created and led by Dr. Thomas Bernagozzi. The place is not chosen by chance, of wild beauty, it was hit by the Vaia storm in November 2018: you lie down between the trunks of trees whipped but still standing that inspire thoughts. Be careful, sometimes you fall asleep, you even end up dreaming.

After several delicious forays into historic inns (go for sure to Crown from Aldinoit’s a jewel) and a cooking class to make open-air peasant bread (maso Under the influence)it’s time to move from gastronomy to astronomy. The night is one of the reasons why this valley is so beloved: the sky is among the least polluted by light, and there are two observatories, one stellar and the other solar, open to the public with events and initiatives. But above all, astrotourism here is a serious thing: you can take star walks.
With a torch on our heads, we set off in the company of Steffi Wolterspassionate amateur astronomer and president of theMax Valier Association. Already in the town center we notice that the sky shines brighter: the street lamps have been lowered. Not only to light up a spectacular vault, but also to protect the biological cycle of animals, disoriented by light pollution much more than we who created it.

Less than two hours guided by a path of signs and images and you enter the woods. Thanks to a night flashlight, Piero Angela moments are guaranteed: among the trees that seem to change shape in the dark you discover little animals and small scorpions, the children rejoice. But when the light is turned off the show is all in the sky. Millions of stars, some planets. As in a desert, valleys, houses, peaks and fir trees disappear, and you remain alone with all the stars.

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