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A small but wonderful pocket of northern Italy, the autonomous province shares more than just a border with Austria; this is an alpinista lifestyle that flirts with La Dolce Vita. South Tyrol (Alto Adige/Südtirol) is all about a marriage of cultures, languages, traditions, progressive architecture and spectacular mountain nature – home to the Dolomites and the Three Peaks of Lavaredo (Tre Cime di Lavaredo/Die Drei Zinnen) - a triptych declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2009.
Le Corbusier arrived in 1907, and he famously declared the Dolomites 'the most beautiful natural architecture in the world'. A further 332 Jurassic peaks storm into the sky; the highest mountain is the Ortles in Val Venosta (Vinschgau) at 3,905m, and the highest plateau in Europe, Alpe di Siusi (Seiser Alm). South Tyrol covers 7,399.97 km and has over 13,000 km of hiking trails; road cyclists adore the region for its legendary climbs. More than forty regional dialects are spoken; South Tyrol has three official languages: German, Italian and around the Dolomites region of Alta Badia, the traditional Ladin is spoken - also home to the oldest Rhaeto-Romanic people in the Alps.
The provincial capital of Bolzano (Bozen) is a vibrant university city and home to Ötzi the Iceman, the 5,300-year-old mummy, discovered in 1991, protruding from the glacier near the Tisenjoch Pass. Blessed with more than 300 sunshine days a year and faded Habsburg grandeur, the second city Merano (Meran), has been a tropical hotspot since the days of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. She came for the mild Mediterranean mountain air and healing waters. Glorenza (Glurns) in the south of Malles (Mals) is one of the world's smallest cities and a wonderful melange of narrow medieval streets, churches, and its famous castle.
A chameleon of the Mediterranean and the Alps - expect snow-capped peaks to sun-kissed palm trees, traditional Tyrolean huts to strike-a-pose sustainable architecture, pasta to Knödl, dapper Italian styling to Lederhosn, Habsburg villas to sleek modernist architecture, expresso to Schnapps and the ski piste to botanical gardens.
The Good Life, Das Gute Leben and La Dolce Vita - South Tyrol, Südtirol, Alto Adige – it is an enchanting destination.
Get straight to the heart of the action with a new SkyAlps ski flight that lands directly from London, Antwerp, Billund, Copenhagen, Berlin, Dusseldorf, and Hamburg into Bolzano, the alpine capital of South Tyrol and perfectly placed for ski escapades in the UNESCO protected Dolomites.
Museion in Bolzano, Italy, strikes a standout cubic pose created in reflective aluminium over five floors. Home to the modern and contemporary art museum designed by architects Krüger Schuberth Vandreike.
Food is high on this region's agenda, also known as the Garden of the Alps - the cuisine is a menagerie of hearty Laden Alpine dishes, Italian classics and lightness from the Mediterranean. It is not Italian nor Austrian; it is an epicurean marriage that occasionally dips into Hungary.
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A Capuchin monastic church from 1640 to mountain-top architectural lookouts across the Dolomites, residential modernism to the legendary Zentral Café - the brother and sister team behind Messner Architects.
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"We want to be part of the solution, and we asked ourselves: What exactly is our contribution to the protection of our habitat? What screws can we turn to make the impact of our hotel less harmful - or even beneficial?".
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Established as an affluent town since the days of the Counts of Venosta, Meran / Merano is a poignantly interesting melange of Habsburg-era boulevards, Jugendstil art nouveau villas and medieval heartlands.
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Despite being lovingly steeped in heritage, culture and a deep-rooted sense of the traditional, South Tyrol (Alto Adige/Südtirol) is far static when it comes to architecture and design, particularly when the topic is hotel concepts. Meet the Architects.
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Founded by Stephan Marx and Elke Ladurner, the studio's work is never shy of a making a statement in often built-up zones where space, views, legacy and approval rank high. Their mantra is to distil what you can and cannot build.
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Hotspot of Bolzano, Magdalener Hof has refurbished its popular hotel restaurant under the motto of seductive luxe. The dining and bar lounge zones have all had a style facelift - think clubhouse velvet with a classy New Yorker Martini bar - fun, casual and atmospheric.
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Professor, architect and designer with an intense love of concrete and the alps, architect Othmar Barth (1927-2010) was considered futuristic, often misunderstood and a bit of a silent hero of the rural monumental.
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To the backdrop of the Dolomites is a secretive Spa hideaway where Hay Baths, Honey Massages, Herbal Stamp Massages and Team Dr. Joseph & Thalgo line up to treat weary souls. This is the Lagaciò Hotel Mountain Residence & La Palsa Spa, located some 1500m above the sea level in St. Kassian/Alta Badia, Italy.
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Monocle, the global affairs and lifestyle magazine founded by Tyler Brûlé, highlights South Tyrol in the Italian Alps for it's Travel Top 50 Awards - see where.
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Zaha Hadid's architectural masterpiece atop Kronplatz in South Tyrol, the Messner Mountain Museum, is a concrete designer ode to the history of mountaineering.
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Since this legendary mountain resort's foundations were laid, the owning family were early adopters of being ecological and socially responsible, anchoring the vigilius mountain resort to its commitment to sustainability and conscious journey.
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Thun simultaneously designs and innovates within the medium of interiors, product design and architecture with an aesthetic that stays within the parameters of simplicity, durability and lightness.
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A photography exhibition 'Messner meets Messner' by Lumen opens this winter at the heart of the South Tyrolean Mountains and Dolomites on the top of Mount Kronplatz.
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Architect and engineering studio en.ar[tec] headed by lead architect, artist and skilled restorer Andreas Vallazza based in the South Tyrolean hamlet of Vahrn, close to Brixen. Enartec is a multi-disciplinary design and planning studio which brings together a dynamic team of architects and civil engineers in a single source.
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Design hotel Bühelwirt in South Tyrol by architects Alexander and Armin Pedevilla, was a project that aligned with their modus operandi nicely.
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Adventure cycling through the Alps is in itself a wondrous experience – pedalling the heights through the UNESCO Dolomites is the peak (no pun intended) and is surely on every cycle-adrenalin-junkies’ bucket list.
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Dating back to the 13th century, Merano’s botanical gardens at Trauttmansdorff Castle explore the Mediterranean and Alpine garden, including a Sun Garden with olive groves (including a 700-year-old Sardinian specimen), fig trees, citrus trees and a semi-desert cacti garden.
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Conceiving of NOA as an ever-changing network of architects, interior designers, graphic talent to even psychologists and much more, NOA is able to incorporate a multitude of ideas and styles into its hotel projects.
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The chilled design hotel Miramonti sits perched atop Merano, nestled in forestry with spectacular, Bond-like views. Modernity subtly reigns whilst snuggling up to Alpine traditions – the vibe is relaxed, chilled and most definitely easy-going.
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Wrapped by the Dolomites, this modern eco resort pairs mountain lifestyle with simple elegance and luxury wellness vibes. An authentically pastoral location accented with the local Ladin culture that feels at once both holistic and fun.
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An eye-catching designer hillside bastion of cool contemporary interiors framed by lush alpine forests and snow-capped mountains, where simple luxe shakes hands with age-old tradition.
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Remodelled over the centuries, 'Cinematic Italian' is the interior design mantra that consummately knits the restored historical elements to the nostalgia, style and flamboyance from the height of Italian film and design of the 1960s.
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A design refuge for those that like their head in the clouds but feet firmly placed in architectural modernism, set at 1850 metres, the hotel is lofty enough to be able to ski straight out of its door, as well as hiking in summer.
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An architectural-statement, this minimalist hideaway in the Dolomites is the perfect basecamp for those who appreciate design, food, comfort and doorstep nature.
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Sleep under medieval frescoes, sweep down labyrinthine corridors, lord it up on the lofty ramparts or stroll through the Mediterranean garden, admiring the ivy-clad castle backdrop.
Austere beauty and chunky grandeur are the inaugural hallmarks of this 15th-century castle and glacial-grey monolith perched on the slopes of South Tyrolean village Villanders / Villandro in northern Italy.
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A smooth design den pearled in white with an interior design that is eminently simple: a clean alpine aestheticism that borrows from Italian design, the Danish principles of hygge and a touch of sweet sophistication in the Japonesque detailing.
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The vigilius mountain resort was created by architect Matteo Thun, inspired by a fallen tree and the surrounding beauty of San Vigilio’s mountaintop landscapes. This wellness sanctuary rewrites the blueprint for an eco-design hotel, reached appropriately only by cable car.
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Ceramics, pencil-lead greys, putty linens and aged furnishings headline at this restored design guesthouse of original simplicity in the cute market of Lana, South Tyrol.
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A fabulously chilled 1920s villa-guesthouse decked in creative glamour wrapped in mustard yellow, it has just ten gorgeous suites and is set to a rhythm of vineyards, vegetable gardens, velvets, rattans, good food, and a pool.
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Cuboid, measured and precise, Casa Al Sole is emblematic of the Italian Rationalism architectural style of Italy in the 20s and 30s. Renovated with precision and scrupulous attention to detail, the house is a meticulous restoration of purity and simplicity.
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For lovers of that perfectly curated menagerie of style, good taste, careful heritage and thought-provoking artwork, this is your soft urban pitstop of smart Dolce Vita.
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A groovy icon from the seventies, Seehotel Ambach, presides over the shores of Lake Caldaro in Italy’s South Tyrol with its perfectly formed, curvaceous marshmallowy walls of laid-back glamour and a canvas of tangerine, vert and oxide red, which drape mid-century furniture pieces.
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In a heritage fusion of aesthetic restraint, the aged inn dates back to 1450 and we are privy to its past in all its whispered glory. Once a post office, coffeehouse and coppersmith, the townhouse has been skilfully reinvented by ASAGGIO architects.
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A design smoothie wrapped in vineyards and mountain eye-candy; this villa-hotel masters the polarity of heritage with its sedated tones of taupe framing dramatic vistas of vert. Modernity, fresh elegance and a natural hand are cornerstones within the restored traditional walls of Das Wanda; a modern, designer, natural retreat with a strong South Tyrolean heart.
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Rising up like delicate meringue-whipped peaks, mirroring the Dolomites panorama that surrounds it, the architecture and design of Hotel Milla Montis create an impact.
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With mountain eye-candy stretching out in every direction, this nest egg of casual style is the perfect bolthole for urbanites who love the rural idyll framed by modernity and crowned by its fabulous rooftop infinity pool of sheer wow.
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Small, delicate and exquisite, this creative residence is fully stocked with vintage family pieces and curatorial heritage and includes a fabulous Orangerie thriving between the greenest of Mediterranean gardens and the whitest snow-capped peaks.
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A fabulous retro-design, five bedroom holiday home of smooth vintage in Merano, this design vacation-rental is gorgeous, a luxury haven dotted with thoughtful mid-century design pieces, layered with love.
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Birch and smoked oak hug the thick walls and capture the house’s DNA from the days as a farmhouse barn. Once a resplendent Renaissance home to the Bishop and favoured lodgings for the merchant traders heading along the Romanesque Via Claudia Augusta.
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History, design, calmed wellness and an interior of modern heritage make this hotel-apartment refuge close to Merano the perfect pitstop for some downtime and closeness to nature.
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Fabulous holiday apartments with panoramic views and an interior palette that borrows from the surrounding beauty and captures the purity of nature with a modernist hand.
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For lovers of that perfectly curated menagerie of style, good taste, careful heritage and thought-provoking artwork, this is your soft urban pitstop of smart Dolce Vita.
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Bijou refuges crafted deep in the countryside or clinging to the wild coastline, these hideaways bring style to their natural location.
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Pitstop here for a bucket-list dispatch which jumps off the treadmill of busy on a journey through the moi realms of wellness, escapism and curation.
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Who was it that said it's better to have millions of people doing sustainability imperfectly, rather than a handful doing it perfectly?
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Capture the essence of the Mediterranean from cool crafted boutique hotels and villa retreats to the makers and artisans who populate the region with products of style.
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