What’s it like to stay at Sensoria, the Dolomites’ newest wellness spot?

Backlit by the setting sun, which casts a trembling spotlight through the gathering steam, Teresa Altamura moves around the sauna with the grace of a swan. In one hand she holds a large white fan, which she waves like a wing in the humid air, the scent of alpine larch wafting through the air with each movement.

“Take a deep breath,” she whispers. I’m sitting on the wooden steps of the sauna. Its steps are arranged like a small amphitheater in front of a bowl of bubbling hot rocks. But when you smell the scent of the forest, you can’t help but feel connected to the outdoors. Outside the window, I can see a spruce garden beyond the steam, and beyond that a mountain that looks like a witch’s hat.

Daily themed saunas like this Mediation Infusion are just one of the relaxing experiences on offer at Sensoria, a family-run alpine lodge in the Dolomites. In 2022, it will be completely transformed into a wood and glass wellness resort. There’s equine therapy, yoga, and even new moon wishes (the practice of realizing your thoughts and desires by writing them down during the new moon). And while skiing, mountaineering and adventure hiking remain the backbone of this Italian region, Sky Alps’ new service from London to the gateway town of Bolzano is drawing more tourists to the region. The hope is that these activities will appeal to a wider range of people as they become more popular.

But, of course, the biggest attraction is the outdoors, the UNESCO-listed landscape. Sensoria is designed with Japanese architectural principles in mind. The views around the lodge lead to a deliberately framed view of the mountains, with one of the most famous mountain features in the Italian Alps rising just above the sun loungers.

The Skirial massif is a sheer gray wall that ends in the broken granite of Mount Santner, the Great Witch’s Hat. In fact, locals say that Skirial is home to an Order that uses the forest stones as launching pads. At 2,414 meters high, Mount Santner is only half the size of its more famous neighbors in the Alps, but what it lacks in height it more than makes up for in presence.

“Santner is the symbol of South Tyrol,” our hiking guide Patrick Moeller explained to us the next morning, as we gazed at the mountain from the Alpe di Siusi plateau, a short cable-car ride up from our hotel. From this angle, the mountain looked entirely different, with its long tail and fat rump, like the cow grazing below it.

Patrick, a lanky local in a baseball cap who works as a fitness instructor when he’s not in the mountains, is as hooked as I am. “It was named after the Austrian man who first climbed this mountain in 1880,” he tells me, his eyes still fixed on the massif. “It’s a technical climb, but some of the people on the expedition team climbed it barefoot.”

Although the Santner climb is one of the most popular hikes in Alpe di Siusi, my focus is on more gentle activities. Sensoria’s motto is a connection with nature, which is easily achieved in an environment like this. Patrick chose a path that offered sweeping views of the high plateau mountains, interwoven with smooth meadows, clumps of purple crocus, shallow streams, and streams lined with pine, spruce, and fir trees.

At 22 square miles, the Alpe di Siusi is the largest highland meadow in Europe, with views extending beyond the meadow for miles in every direction. Take a deep breath of clean air in time with your rhythmic steps. As we walk, Patrick points out the humps of Sasso Lungo (3,181 meters) and Sasso Piatto (2,955 meters), and we eventually reach a hill from which we can see the tip of Marmolada (3,343 meters) in the distance. With snow cascading behind limestone domes, this mountain is the highest peak in the Italian Alps, known as the “Queen of the Dolomites.”

Patrick is convinced that these mountains are the key to his family’s happiness. “We have a good life here,” he says, as we stop for coffee at the Edelweiss Hut, a log cabin, mid-hike. A dirndl-clad waitress cheerfully emerges from the tiny kitchen to deliver mugs of beer and small glasses of home-made grappa to hikers lounging in log chairs. “As kids, we used to walk a different mountain every Sunday. Now I go with my kids. We have clean air and they’re in contact with nature.”

The next day, I went on a “wellbeing walk” with Senseria’s co-owner Lea Oberhofer through the forests of South Tyrol’s oldest natural park, Serial Catinaccio Natural Park, which surrounds the hotel. . Her instructions are simple. “See, touch, feel. Be present.” I see the dry scales of a spruce bark, the spikes of a juniper tree, the hoof prints in the mud of a horse grazing in the forest. , I trace the silky grass heads across the path with my fingertips. “In the mountains, you have to focus on the road, so it’s easier to disconnect,” says Lee. I understand what she wants to say. Rough roads require concentration. Must navigate deep exposed tree roots, slopes, and uneven ground. While I was already out of breath, Her delicate body appears to be floating among the trees, like a forest fairy. “I feel calm. I can relax mentally and physically here.”

She gave me the task of collecting things from the forest floor. “Choose what appeals to you,” she says. “Give them meaning and throw them away when you’re ready.” The very act of choosing focuses her mind, and before long she’s clutching a pine cone in one hand, feeling calm and meditative.

Soon, we reach the shores of Laghetto di Fier and the spruce begins to thin. Laguette di Fier is a lake where people lounge on wooden decks, kids jump in the water, and lunchers sip Aperol spritzes in cafes overlooking the lake. I saw the Skirial at the water’s edge and knew this was the moment I had been waiting for. I pulled my arm back, threw the pine cone into the black water, and watched it fall out of sight. My journey is over. Just like the different faces of Mount Santner, I discovered completely different sides to the Dolomites.