Walking into Hotel La Perla in Corvara, in the heart of the Dolomites, you feel as if you are in someone’s stately home, albeit a beautiful one with four excellent restaurants, a large wine cellar, and a newly renovated spa.
The Dolomites, a UNESCO World Heritage site, have become a popular destination for Israelis, offering amazing views and world-class hiking. We flew into and out of Milan, rented a car, and made the challenging five-hour drive.
It’s a shorter drive from Venice, but I wanted a chance to visit Milan, where I had never been.
La Perla was established in 1956, when Ernesto and Anni Costa opened a small guesthouse in this well-known ski area just opposite the family’s traditional home.
Ernesto was a ski instructor as well as a plumber and built the first ski lift in the area, which you can still see out the hotel’s windows. Today the hotel is owned by Ernesto’s sons – Michil and Mattias. It is a member of the Leading Hotels of the World.
The area of Corvara and the Dolomites is called South Tyrol and is an interesting blend of Italy and Austria. In fact, it was originally part of Austria and annexed to Italy only after World War II.
Much of the hotel is made of wood, but many of the objects in the room are antiques belonging to the family. The family is also committed to upholding the Ladin culture, a unique Alpine heritage from this area.
Mathias invites all guests for an aperitivo (a wonderful Italian tradition of pre-dinner drinks and snacks) at his family’s original Ladin home just a few steps from the hotel.
The home dates back hundreds of years, and it was a chance to see what life in this area was like.
“We want our guests to feel at home,” Mathias told The Jerusalem Post.
We didn’t realize how chilly the area would still be in June, and my husband did not bring a jacket. Within minutes, the front desk found one he could borrow during our stay – a jacket I may also have borrowed a few times.
La Perla puts food and wine at heart of the experience
La Perla combines tradition and luxury. There are four restaurants on the property, and the food was excellent in both that we tried, as well as the breakfast.
“The Costa family feels passionately about their food and about their wine, and a lot of the experience our guests have is around the table,” Marianne Jensen, the director of sales and marketing, told the Post.
For those who keep kosher, many dishes can be made vegan, and there are plenty of vegetarian options. Breakfast is included in every stay, and the buffet breakfast was elegant and had my favorite fruits – pineapple and raspberries.
Alongside the buffet, you can order eggs or crepes from the kitchen, and I indulged in a delicious chocolate crepe several mornings.
I was there when the hotel had just opened for the summer season, and the Michelin-starred restaurant La Stua de Michil had not yet opened.
So we ate our dinners in the lovely Les Stues, a group of six different rooms that felt more like home kitchens than restaurants. The four-course meals were excellent, with relatively small portions that left me full but not stuffed.
There were plenty of vegetarian and vegan dishes available.
La Perla combines outdoor adventure with relaxation
LA PERLA offers a “hiking guide” – a lovely young woman named Stefka. The hotel offers hikes that she guides several times a week, or guests who prefer to hike independently can consult with her on routes.
The hike scheduled for the day we planned was considered “moderate,” but after chatting with us for a few minutes, Stefka decided we needed an easier hike, and since nobody else showed up, we had a private hiking guide.
The four-hour hike was still challenging enough, but the views of the Dolomites were outstanding. It was not a well-known route and would have been difficult to do alone.
I was also treated to a wine tasting and a glimpse of La Perla’s wine collection with some 35,000 bottles, making it one of the largest and most important collections in the area. We tasted several local varieties that I had not tried before with the hotel’s sommelier.
I was also treated to an excellent massage at the newly renovated spa, where I spent a few relaxing hours in the indoor pool and sauna. In the winter, the resort is “ski-in, ski-out,” meaning you can go directly from the hotel to the ski slope behind.
I highly recommend a trip to the Dolomites and La Perla.
La Perla Corvara
The writer was a guest of the hotel.