“Casa al sole.” In that name, there was a small grace or a small virtue. Either way, it presaged all the excitement that good discoveries bring. A purple-red nest. A few steps led to the old door. Then came the corridor and the main staircase, which, like a spine, crossed the building at its height. Wide, balanced, maternal, it had the task of guiding us up and down, fingers lingering on the handrail. From an architectural perspective, the property was the offspring of the rationalist spirit that even spread to Val Gardena. Built in the 1930s, by the 1960s it had become a mountain guesthouse frequented by regulars. Later, it became a reception center for refugees, until Manuel, after inheriting it, turned it into a discreet, feminine inn with his girlfriend Alexandra. On those afternoons, the June light tattooed the walls with dazzling geometries of varying degrees of subtlety, while silence furnished the rooms with their slender depths. From the large windows, we took in turquoise skies, portions of the Sassolungo, and the peaks of the Sella mountains. The past often appeared on the smooth floors and the thickness of the original window frames. “We perceived it as a friendly time, still capable of offering guests a warmth of its own”. The renovation was based on a threefold principle: slowness, tranquility, serenity. “We rethought the house, preserving everything that was there, keeping it alive. We created a fracture that, in the end, is a union. Once again, there is the small library spread between the floors, raw steel, larch wood, natural stone, clay, felt, gravel, and a few colors in a loop. We believe that matter itself is color”.
The mornings woke up magnificently, with the notes and voices of Mina, Caterina Caselli, Rino Gaetano, Celentano, and Paolo Conte. With butter from farmer Rudi Senoner, who has two dairy cows in Ortisei, coffee from the Giamaica Caffè roasting plant in Verona, jams from Alpe Pragas in Val Pusteria, and cakes, bread, and brioche made with sourdough from the Costa bakery in Selva Gardena. Organic yogurt from Latteria di Vipiteno, cheeses from Cascina Lago Scuro in Stagno Lombardo in the province of Cremona, and delicacies from the Alter Keller butcher’s shop in Fontanefredde in Alto Adige.
Words Meraviglia Paper. Photographs Paola Ristoldo.
