Radein is a wonderful cul-de-sac. The curvy road ends between the mountain church and the school. We are over 1500 m, up the Adige Valley, along the Dolomites road, through the magic southern landscape with fertile valleys and mountains high above the woods. Here in Radein there is a classic sixties’ mountain hotel, which in fact is not just classic. At Berghoferin, vivid and dull greens, citron yellows, intense coral reds, plain mountain wools, and soft checks live together in a euphoria typical of youth but with a wisdom and measure acquired with age. We, who ‘come from the city’, spend the first few hours at Berghoferin choosing which of our own characters to express first. The bon-ton nostalgia of Côte d’Azur swimming pools, with white and orange striped beach umbrellas. The wild privacy of the small house in the wood, with Finnish sauna, changing room and an oval wooden outdoor tub. The French romanticism of the nymphaea lake, with a small rowing boat and a bridge. The irony of the bowls field. The sportsmanship of the big sunlit deck filled with salmon geraniums and gladdened by the taste of proper Golden apples sherbet. The contemporariness of a refined library, with every perfect international publication about design, travel and food, and with a long co-working table. What is ancient and original – the Stube, the veranda, the two-century-old chairs, the vintage jugs, the silver bowls – gathers lightness from very sweet small contemporary handicrafts – little porcelain rabbits, chequered dishes, pastel fruit stands – and from appropriate design objects. Just fourteen rooms, just four months per year.

Words and pictures Meraviglia Paper.