Castel Badia — Dolomites, Italy
Of all the good new resorts which have just lately opened in the Dolomites, Castel Badia—set in a manor home that dates again to the 12 months 1000—is at the high of the pile. The lodge, an Alpine counterpart to Puglia’s Borgo Egnazia, was created by Ian Schrager’s protégé Aldo Melpignano, who brings a brand new sense of cool to high-end Italian hospitality. The constructing has served as a courthouse, a convent, a personal fort, and, since the Nineteen Seventies, a lodge. A current renovation saved every thing that may very well be saved: The flooring, wooden ceilings, stuccoed vaults, and frescoes stay. A portray of an abbess gazes down from the wall of the present kitchen at the informal, conventional Stube, the place chef Andrea Ribaldone prepares dishes like grilled pumpkin served with truffles and olive oil; he will even open a fine-dining restaurant in the coming 12 months. Silence reigns on this historic fort, the place life, because it did in the Middle Ages, revolves round the courtyard. Through that nexus you entry the backyard, swimming pool, visitor rooms (there are 28 in complete, together with a three-story chalet), basement spa with frescoed rest rooms overlooking the mountains, and crypt of San Lorenzo, a protected website that, like the remainder of the fort, is open to the public. This stays a sacred place, at the same time as company get pleasure from its sybaritic choices. From $638. —Sara Magro