Ancora Cortina

The Living Room of Cortina

Corso Italia is not a street you drift onto by accident. Cortina d'Ampezzo's main pedestrian artery functions as both runway and village square, where the rituals of the alpine passeggiata play out against a backdrop of Dolomite peaks that shift colour from pale limestone to deep orange as the afternoon light changes. Ancora has stood on this street since 1826, long enough that returning visitors approach it with the muscle memory of a regular rather than the hesitation of a first-timer. The building's reopening in June 2025, following a multi-year restoration, reframes it.

The restoration's central design challenge, common to heritage properties across the Italian alps, was to honour accumulated character without embalming it. The answer at Ancora sits in the layering of material and period: traditional alpine timber and velvet appear alongside vintage pieces, curated art, and unexpected surface details that refuse any single decade's aesthetic. The effect is closer to a well-travelled collector's residence than a period hotel, and it positions Ancora within a cohort of restored European landmark properties, among them Bellevue Syrene 1820 in Sorrento and Passalacqua in Moltrasio, that treat historical depth as a design asset rather than a constraint.

Thirty-Eight Rooms and the Dolomites Through Every Window

Italian alpine hotels have split in recent years between large resort formats with extensive amenity footprints and smaller properties that trade on intimacy and address. With 38 rooms and suites, Ancora belongs to the latter category. The scale is deliberate: it keeps the property readable as a social space rather than an anonymous corridor of doors. Every room and private terrace frames the Dolomites, a view that does more editorial work than any designed feature. The mountains are not decorative; they are the primary reference point for everything the property does, from the materials chosen inside to the seasonal logic of the dining programme.

The property carries Leading Hotels of the World membership from its 2025 reopening, a signal that places it in a comparable set that includes properties across Italy such as Aman Venice, Borgo Egnazia in Savelletri di Fasano, and Four Seasons Hotel Firenze. It provides early positioning within a recognisable international framework.

For those planning a broader Dolomites circuit, the nearby Rosapetra SPA Resort offers an alternative within Cortina, while Forestis Dolomites in Plose and Castel Fragsburg in Merano extend the alpine itinerary further south and west.

Dining From First Light to Last Call

Ancora operates three distinct food and drink formats under one roof, each calibrated to a different tempo of the day. The open-kitchen restaurant anchors the serious dining offer, with a menu described as driven by seasonality and global influence. In the alpine context, this means produce cycles that shift dramatically between summer and winter: the high summer months bring a different larder to the table than the deep ski season, and a kitchen oriented around nature's rhythms responds to those shifts rather than running a static year-round menu.

La Terrazza operates across the full day, from breakfast through the aperitivo hour, in a format that blends international reference points with regional flavour. The terrace format is a social architecture decision as much as a culinary one: the all-day flow creates a space where guests and non-staying visitors share the same tables, which reinforces Ancora's positioning as Cortina's gathering space rather than a sealed hotel amenity. This is the model that properties like Il Pellicano in Porto Ercole and Borgo Santandrea on the Amalfi Coast have used effectively: the hotel terrace as destination for locals and visitors alike, extending the property's social reach beyond its room count.

The bar handles pre-dinner cocktails, and then, after dark, the dynamic shifts underground. The Brave Club is described as an intimate space where phones are discouraged and connection takes priority. Underground bar formats have proliferated in European cities over the past decade, but within Cortina, a mountain town where evening options tend toward the convivial rather than the late-night, a dedicated after-hours venue is a meaningful addition to the social infrastructure.

For comparison, Bulgari Hotel Roma, Portrait Milano, and Rosewood Castiglion Del Bosco in Montalcino each handle the dining-as-social-infrastructure question differently depending on their urban or rural context. Ancora's answer is specific to Cortina: multiple formats serving multiple day parts in a single building on the town's main pedestrian street.

Planning a Stay

Cortina d'Ampezzo operates on two distinct seasonal peaks: the ski season from December through March, when Corso Italia fills with a mix of Italian and international visitors, and the summer months from June through August and into September, when hikers, climbers, and design-focused travellers take over. Ancora's June 2025 opening positions it to catch the full summer season in its inaugural year, which means early-season guests will experience the property before its routines have fully settled. That can be an advantage for those who prefer a hotel in its formative weeks, when the team's attention is concentrated and the novelty factor runs high.

Booking directly through the property or via the Leading Hotels of the World reservation network is the standard approach for a member property at this tier. Given the 38-room scale, availability can tighten quickly during peak weeks in both seasons.

Guests building longer Italian itineraries often combine Cortina with properties further south: Casa Maria Luigia in Modena, Castello di Reschio in Lisciano Niccone, Corte della Maestà in Civita di Bagnoregio, Borgo San Felice Resort in Castelnuovo Berardenga, Castelfalfi in Montaione, JK Place Capri, and Il San Pietro di Positano all sit within the same quality register and offer very different terrain. For those extending the circuit internationally, Aman New York, The Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City, and Amangiri in Canyon Point represent the same approach to design-led, intimate-scale hospitality in very different landscapes. EALA My Lakeside Dream in Limone sul Garda rounds out the Italian options for those who want water rather than peaks as their view.