Magazine4 min read
1,200 km of ski slopes, a carousel connecting four valleys, and a house that welcomes you straight to the fireplace after the last descent.
Casa tra cime sits at more than 1,600 metres above sea level, in the highest inhabited hamlet of the Dolomites - a small cluster of houses on a shelf above the valley, framed by the Marmolada glacier, the Sella massif and the Civetta range.
The Sella Ronda is one of the most iconic ski circuits in the world. A single lift pass, a compass in your head, and you can ride around the entire Sella massif in a day - through Alta Badia, Arabba, Val di Fassa and Val Gardena, dropping into a different language every valley.
From Casa tra cime it is an eight-minute drive to Arabba, the nearest access point. Between the house and the lifts, one turn takes you past the small Baroque church of Livinallongo; another lets you see the Marmolada in the morning light. On the way home, the last light usually catches the Civetta peak first.
After the last turn of the day, when the sun burns low over the glacier, the house is a very quiet place to arrive at. The ski room, one floor below street level, keeps the boots warm overnight. Above it, the fire in the double-height living room does what old fires always did: hold everyone in one soft-lit room for the evening.
Winter here is not decoration. It is the reason the house was built.