The First Cortina: Zuma, Dolomia stone and a balcony for everyone

Cortina d'Ampezzo spent most of last winter on television. The Milano Cortina Olympics brought new lifts, a fresh coat of paint to half the town, and a level of international attention the resort hadn't seen since 1956, and the question everyone in the hotel business has asked since is who will arrive to make the most of it. The first answer is The First Cortina, from the Pavilions Hotels & Resorts group, which opens on Corso Italia in early December.

A building that looks at the mountains

The architects, Studio Marincola, have taken the sensible view that nobody comes to Cortina to look at a hotel. Their building is clad in fir wood and pale Dolomia stone, the same dolomite that gives the surrounding peaks their colour, and opened up with long runs of glass so that the Tofane, Cristallo and Pomagagnon are framed from the inside. All 76 rooms and suites have a private balcony facing the mountains, which sounds like a small promise until you remember how many Alpine hotels still sell rooms over the car park.

The room to ask for is the suite with a Jacuzzi set into a corner beside the balcony doors, so that you can lie in hot water and watch the light go pink on the rock in the evening. The Ladin word for that phenomenon, enrosadira, gives its name to the top-floor penthouse, which has its own 50 square metre terrace and a private sauna.

Zuma goes skiing

The headline is the arrival of Zuma, the Japanese izakaya that began in Knightsbridge and now sits in most of the world's richer postcodes. This is its first restaurant in the mountains, and it will bring the full routine of robata grill, black cod and late DJ sets to a town that has traditionally done its après-ski in wood-panelled stube over a glass of Lagrein. Whether that thrills you or makes your heart sink is probably a good test of whether this is your hotel. I can see it working brilliantly for a crowd who want a scene after a day on the slopes, and I can also see the old Cortina families wincing slightly as they pass the door.

For something gentler there is Velo, the hotel's all-day Italian restaurant, with breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and pastries served in front of the mountains, which is where I would expect to spend most of my time.

Spa, skis and summer

The Revīvō spa runs over two floors, with a sauna, a traditional hammam and an indoor-outdoor pool for swimming in the snow. There is proper ski storage, rental on site and, for the summer months when Cortina quietly becomes one of the best walking bases in the Dolomites, hiking kit to borrow.

Is The First Cortina for you?

The First Cortina is clearly pitched at a younger, more international crowd than the grandes dames along the same street, and its central position on the pedestrian Corso puts the shops, the bars and the cable car to Tofana within easy reach. If you want a hotel with life in it and a restaurant people will be queuing to get into, book early for the Christmas weeks. If you want an old-fashioned Alpine hotel with a fire, a library and very little noise, the Cristallo reopens up the road next year.

The details

The First Cortina, Corso Italia, Cortina d'Ampezzo. Opening in early December 2026. 76 rooms and suites, Zuma Cortina, Velo, Revīvō spa. Venice Marco Polo and Treviso airports are both about a two-hour drive. Rates on request; pavilionshotels.com