COMO Alpina Dolomites

Between nine in the morning and five in the afternoon, nobody drives onto the Alpe di Siusi without a permit. By day the way up is the cable car from Siusi, whose top station is a few hundred metres from the hotel, or the shuttle bus from Castelrotto. At the top is Europe's largest high alpine meadow, at about 1,800 metres, and at its southern end the Schlern stands up out of the grass like a wall. COMO Alpina Dolomites is at its foot, looking out across the meadow to the Sassolungo. It is clad in quartzite and wood, after the mineral ground beneath it, and the way in is shaped like a crevice in the rock: the one crevice in these mountains nobody needs a rope for. Inside, pale blue meets weathered timber, and in one bathroom a round, wood-clad tub stands at a window full of snowy peaks.

Recommended for families who ski, and for anyone who would rather walk out of the door onto a mountain than drive to one. In winter the piste runs past the hotel and on into Val Gardena's share of the Dolomiti Superski; in summer the Schlern's trails start behind it. Children from four to twelve have a club, included in the rate, open from three in the afternoon until eleven at night, which is later than most of its members. The spa's hay bath, in the South Tyrolean manner, is for legs that have done the Schlern. The Alpina Chalet Grill cooks over an open fire, and Trattoria Dell'Alpe brings the cooking of the Veneto, from Venice to Verona, up to about 1,800 metres above the lagoon.