At altitude, wood moves. With the heating on and the outside air at minus ten, the relative humidity inside a room drops below 30 per cent, and a spruce panel that hasn’t been seasoned correctly shrinks by two or three millimetres per metre in a single season. That’s why in hotels in Cortina, the Ampezzano and the surrounding valleys we only work with timber dried to 8 or 9 per cent moisture content and joints designed to take that movement, and why we install with our own teams during the two windows when hotels are closed.
Two short closures, and nothing else
The Dolomites have two full seasons. Winter runs from early December to after Easter, summer from mid-June to mid-September, with September now as strong as July. That leaves two windows: late April into May, and October into the first half of November. Each one is six or seven weeks, no more, and all the maintenance work has to fit in between.
This means splitting large projects into two phases, the rooms in spring and the common areas in autumn, for example, or working on one wing at a time. In the first case, the sample selection has to be locked in for the whole year, because six months apart the same brushed oak with the same finish can arrive a different shade if the timber batch changes. We keep a physical reference sample and check the new delivery against it before each phase begins.
On timing: to install in April, the executive design needs signing off in November and samples approved by December, because nothing gets decided between Christmas and Epiphany. To install in October, you sign off in May. Either way, you’re looking at eight to ten weeks of manufacture plus two or three of installation, and the furniture production times need reading alongside the transport up to altitude, which in bad weather can add a week.
Real wood, and what happens if you choose the wrong species
Guests paying for a room in Cortina expect wood they can touch and feel. Swiss pine has a scent and remains the preferred choice for headboards and room panelling, but it’s soft and marks easily: it needs replacing with larch or oak on worktops and edges exposed to knocks. Reclaimed old spruce, the kind taken from dismantled tabià barns, has a look no finish can reproduce, but it has to be selected board by board and sanded, and the price per square metre can run three times that of new timber. Larch darkens with light exposure: if one room has a south-facing wall and the others don’t, the difference shows after two years.
The finishes that hold up best at altitude are oil or hard wax, which can be touched up locally without redoing the whole piece. Glossy film-forming lacquers scratch with ski boots and gaiters, and in a setting where guests walk into their room with ski gear, the marks show immediately. On floors and skirting boards, where boots and skis pass through, we fit metal or hardwood trim at least eight centimetres high.
For the more isolated properties, from high-altitude mountain refuges to valley hotels reachable only in summer, the same transport constraints and load limits apply that govern how you furnish in the mountains.
Local rules on the appearance of buildings
In the Dolomite municipalities, building regulations go into detail: roof covering type, window frame colour, facade materials, balcony shape, signage. Anything visible from outside has to be agreed with the local authority, and that affects furniture every time you work on terraces, outdoor dining areas, entrance porches or screening. Pergolas and glazed enclosures for outdoor dining areas require planning permission, whereas movable furniture doesn’t. Setting up the outdoor area with removable pieces and non-fixed heating often lets you open for the season without waiting for lengthy permits.
Since the Winter Olympics, the average standard of Ampezzano properties has risen, and guest expectations with it: larger rooms created by combining smaller ones, bathrooms with double basins, expanded spa areas. Anyone renovating now is competing against that benchmark, not the one from five years ago.
Recurring work in mountain hotels
Slatted panelling with open joints
Swiss pine or spruce slats with a 4 millimetre gap, fitted on a ventilated batten frame. The gap absorbs winter shrinkage, so the wall doesn’t open up at the joints.
Headboards with integrated light niches
A niche 25 centimetres deep with warm 2700 kelvin lighting, sockets and a shelf. It replaces the bedside table in narrower rooms.
Wardrobes with a gear compartment
A separate column with a slatted shelf for ski boots, a socket for the boot dryer and hanging space for wet technical clothing, ventilated upwards.
Spa and relaxation area furniture
Benches and loungers in thermally treated wood, technical units with stainless steel fittings, surfaces that hold up to steam, chlorine and essential oils.
Stube and dining rooms
Panelled boiserie in framed sections, perimeter benches with storage, solid wood tables with a 40 millimetre top and recessed legs.
Logistics at altitude and installation
An articulated lorry doesn’t get to Cortina in winter as easily as it gets to Belluno. We plan deliveries with trucks under 12 tonnes, snow chains on board from November to April, and covered unloading because the wood can’t be left out in the snow. Where there’s no yard to unload in, we drop off at a staging point down in the valley and bring loads up with smaller vehicles, two or three trips a day.
The teams stay on site for the whole job, lodged locally: commuting daily on mountain roads means losing two hours a day per person. We bring consumables and spare hardware parts with us, since the nearest hardware shop in some valleys is forty minutes away.
We carry out final checks with the building still closed and heated for at least three days, so the pieces have already settled into the conditions they’ll be in during the season. The reopening checklist allows a week’s margin before the first arrivals, which in December is the difference between opening with every key sellable and opening with four rooms out of action. For an idea of timing and cost, all you need is the floor plan with the number of keys, and from there we put together your quote; for properties that also run hotels in the city, we follow the same approach as in Verona and Torino.
Frequently asked questions
Is Swiss pine suitable for the whole room?
For headboards, panelling and fronts, yes. For worktops and exposed edges, no, since it’s soft and dents easily. The combination that lasts is Swiss pine on show with oak or larch wherever suitcases, bags and gear get set down.
Why does the wood open up after the first winter?
Because it was installed with the wrong moisture content or without expansion gaps. With timber dried to 8 or 9 per cent, open gaps between the slats and installation in a space that’s already heated, this doesn’t happen.
How long does a project on twenty-five rooms take?
It fits within the six weeks of the spring closure, provided all the material is on site from day one. With building work or bathroom refurbishment involved, it’s split into two phases, spring and autumn.
Do you need a dedicated space for ski gear in the room?
In upmarket properties, yes, at least one ventilated column with a socket. Without one, you end up with wet ski boots on the parquet and guests asking for a storage room that’s often already full.
Do you also do spa areas and outdoor dining spaces?
Yes. These are the two areas that have absorbed the largest share of investment at altitude in recent years, and they’re also the ones with the most constraints, on materials for the spa and on permits for the outdoor dining space.