Trafoi is a small village in the municipality of Stelvio, in South Tyrol, along the road that climbs from the Val Venosta to the Stelvio Pass. It lies inside the Stelvio National Park, right below the Ortles, which at 3,905 metres is the highest mountain in the region. Hotel Bella Vista is run by the Thöni family, the family of Gustav Thöni, the ski champion born in Trafoi who won an Olympic gold medal and four overall World Cups in the 1970s.
For the new wing the family turned to Matteo Thun & Partners, and the work was completed in two stages. The new reception and the lounge bar opened in December 2025, with the reception working as the link between the historic hotel and the extension. The 24 suites and the spa followed in May 2026, and altogether the new building covers 2,915 square metres.
A timber lattice around the suites
Adding rooms and a large spa is the usual way a family hotel in the Alps grows, and the new part often ends up looking heavier than the old house next to it. Bella Vista needed the same things, but the extension handles its size in a different way. The spa sits in a grey base on the slope, while the floors above are wrapped in a lattice of timber posts and rails that follows rounded corners, so the wing has no hard edges.
Behind the timber there are balconies and large windows. Seen from the garden, the lattice gives the building a texture that recalls the wooden balconies of the old hotel without copying them. From the rooms it works more like a light screen than a wall, and the mountains stay in view.
Spa and lounge bar
The spa takes up the lower part of the wing. The indoor pool runs up to a full-height window with the peaks straight ahead, and outside an infinity pool projects from the terrace over the meadow. There are also four saunas, one of them panoramic, a whirlpool, rooms for yoga and fitness, and an outdoor area with a natural lake.
The lounge bar is called Home of Gold, a name that needs little explanation in a hotel run by the Thöni family. It is a warm room with a timber ceiling, a fireplace and a long bar with backlit shelves. The interiors are by Biquadra.
Suites facing the mountains
The suites are oriented towards the mountains, with walls lined in pale wood and windows set deep in the wall, some of them with a long seat and cushions right in front of the peaks. The bathrooms keep the same calm tone, with stone, wood and very little else.
Many hotels in the Alps are growing in the same way, with more rooms and bigger spas, and the new buildings often look as if they could stand in any valley. In Trafoi the extension is large, but the timber, the rounded shape and a plan that turns rooms and pools towards the peaks keep it tied to this place. It is a useful reference for the many family hotels in South Tyrol that will face similar choices in the coming years.
Keep reading: Hub of Huts, architecture upside down in Valdaora and the Hotel Natura extension.
Products
- Pools and saunas: Hofer Group
- Windows and glazing: BSV
- Timber carpentry: Marseiler Holz
- Joinery: Brida
- Stone and tile floors: Fuchs
