With a privileged position on Alpe Giomein, in the mountain resort of Breuil-Cervinia in the Valle d’Aosta, situated among the ski slopes, the Hotel Principe delle Nevi creates a unique experience surrounded by the beauty of nature and the details of the finest design. The location straddles the mountains of one of Italy’s most renowned winter and summer resorts in the Alps.
Redefining Mountain Hospitality at Hotel Principe delle Nevi
The hotel was designed by Studio Bettiol Architecture of Aosta crowning a collaboration between the client, the McNeill family, and the architectural firm Bettiol Architecture that began in 2008 with the project taking place in two distinct moments.
Two architectural interventions and two identities opened the doors for the creation of an original and contemporary structure characterized by a well-defined concept: to offer its guests a unique experience. With a linear but at the same time sophisticated style and attention to detail, the project aimed to redefine the concept of hospitality by proposing in the Cervinia landscape a modern and chic Italian design, that still captured the essence of the mountains and the classic touch of a chalet.
The first phase of the Hotel Principe delle Nevi intervention started in 2008, then continued recently with a second phase and the construction of an ex-novo structure consisting of an expansion of the existing one, a project with a visionary design that anticipated today’s hospitality trends for a smarter, more international, and dynamic clientele.
Through this new intervention of the hotel, the studio, coordinated by architect Mariapia Bettiol, was in charge of the architectural and interior design project of this new area with the aim of expressing to the fullest all the creativity and interpreting the needs of the client for the development of environments that represent a modern boutique hotel characterized by a warm soul and a welcoming atmosphere.
A Tunnel for Living in Breuil-Cervinia: Between Exhibitions and Tastings
The two facilities of the Hotel Principe delle Nevi are connected by an approximately 80-meter-long underground tunnel that runs through the mountain and houses the hotel, which has been transformed into an exhibition gallery: a wine cellar where wine can be stored and displayed for tastings, a tribute to Italy’s breathtaking views and its wines, giving the tunnel a clear identity, which goes beyond the logistical and functional features of connecting the two spaces of the hotel.
What characterizes the new facility are exclusive spaces of qualitative comfort and significant square footage. The guest is welcomed on the lower ground floor by a second reception area. On the same floor, there is a multipurpose room intended for fitness and yoga, characterized by cuts of light that create a mirrored effect space, an area for luggage storage, and a ski room, in addition to the one already present in the original structure.
The new extension covers a very large area divided into several levels, with a total of seven suites on the second floor, four suites on the second floor, whose square footage ranges from about 40 to 75 square meters, and one suite of about 200 square meters on the top floor, with a kitchen, living room, dining room, bedrooms, and mezzanine, a truly modern luxury apartment. On the second floor, there is also a terrace with a solarium, which can be used by all the guests of the facility.
The Comforts and Elegance of Rooms
The rooms are conceptualized and designed with a strong personality in terms of design, equipped with all amenities. The suites are interconnected through doors hidden by aesthetically elegant and visually unobtrusive sliding mirrors, which have the function of connecting but at the same time dividing, in order to leave the freedom to the user to expand or not to expand the spaces and ensure complete privacy for separate reservations.
New features that characterize each room are the private spa suites, consisting of a sauna or steam room and whirlpool bath located externally on the private terrace, to give guests a moment of complete relaxation with total discretion and a view of the ski slopes. The private spa suites in the rooms offer all the services of a spa combined with the comforts of a suite. Complementing the areas of the new suites is a spacious living area. The bathroom area has been designed with the intention of harmoniously creating an open space.
Architect Mariapia Bettiol’s intervention also involved the original common areas, in order to accommodate a larger number of guests, and the Snowflake restaurant, with its refined and exclusive design, which brings guests into a comfortable environment under the banner of a quality culinary experience.
The creation of furniture, designed by architect Bettiol, was entrusted to interior contractor Concreta, which specializes in the creation, production, and supply of custom and bespoke furniture. The choice of materials focused on the use of wood and stoneware, which gives the structure a modern and elegant look.
Blending In
For the exterior portions of the structure, the material chosen is large-format larch wood with sheet metal roofing. The idea was to create a non-invasive building that would blend perfectly with the surrounding environment, the use of rocks in the lower part emphasizes to the maximum the deep relationship between the structure and the place where it stands to give the feeling that the building was born from the mountain itself: remembering the mountains, following the slope and continuing the play with the terrain, giving the building the same angular lines of the mountain. The basement part of the building was then covered with rocks, between which the natural greenery typical of the Cervinia area was born, thus creating a vertical green play on the rocks.