Arpa di Pietra

Arpa di Pietra is in the hamlet of Pizzole, the handful of scattered houses above the village of Valle San Felice, the first part of the Val di Gresta you come to climbing up from the municipality of Mori. You reach it from the Loppio roundabout on the main road between Rovereto and Riva del Garda, then along the Val di Gresta provincial road and, once past the village bell tower, along an unsurfaced track. You are at a little over six hundred metres of altitude, with Lake Garda a few kilometres away as the crow flies and Monte Altissimo, Monte Biaena and Monte Stivo framing the view. The house stands at the centre of two hectares of dry stone terraced meadows, and it is from those low walls that the name comes: the landscape historian Aldo Gorfer called the terraces of the Val di Gresta an arpa di pietra, a harp of stone.

The building is new and built to green building standards set out item by item on the website: clay and hemp walls, timber roof and floors, controlled mechanical ventilation, solar panels, photovoltaics and a pellet boiler. There are six rooms and they carry names drawn from musical tempo markings, Adagio, Andante, Allegro, Presto, Vivace and Brio, with floor areas between seventeen and twenty one square metres and a balcony facing either the woods and the terraces or towards the basin of the lake. There is no television in the rooms, and it is a choice explained openly. Breakfast is organic, vegetarian and vegan, and in the evening you can dine in the same register.

The wellness area is the main reason for climbing up here, and it should be read for what it really is. There is no swimming pool. There are two whirlpool tubs on the panoramic terrace, heated and therefore usable in the cold months as well, a herbal biosauna, a Finnish sauna at ninety degrees, a sensory shower, a relaxation area clad in old barn wood with seats made inside larch barrels, a solarium in the garden and a herbal tea corner. In the list of facilities published by the property the steam bath does not appear: anyone looking for one would do well to ask before booking. The saunas are open from 15 to 19, the whirlpool twenty four hours a day, and the bag with bathrobe, towels and slippers is included. The saunas are entered without a swimsuit, for stated hygiene reasons, while in the outdoor tubs a swimsuit is compulsory. The wellness area is also open to those not staying here, with a four hour day spa formula by reservation.

On age the two sources do not agree and the difference should be stated. The booking portal reports that children are not allowed, without giving a figure. The property's website is more precise and more permissive: under Children it writes that the house is aimed at an adults only clientele and that it takes guests aged sixteen and over, and the same threshold is repeated in the wellness centre rules and on the day spa page. This page keeps the figure from the website, which is the primary source: entry is from sixteen years, in the rooms as in the sauna. Pets are not allowed, and it is a choice stated in writing, explained out of consideration for guests with allergies. Smoking is forbidden inside the building and on the balconies, and the minimum stay is two nights.

It suits those looking for a small, quiet house, at an altitude that gives cool air in summer and that stays convenient for Lake Garda, and those who happily eat vegetarian or vegan: here it is not an option on request, it is the whole offer. It suits those who want a sauna practised as it should be, without a swimsuit and in silence. It suits less those who want to swim on holiday, those travelling with a dog and those expecting an elaborate water and steam circuit with a steam bath and an indoor pool.