56 APRIL 2018 / TRAVELANDLEISUREASIA.COM
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Haute Comfort
On a visit to the Albergo Bucaneve—a hotel in the mountains of
northern Italy run by high-fashion menswear label Ermenegildo
Zegna—Simon Willis is surprised to find the ambience
more bucolic than blingy. PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANDREA WYNERFROM THE WINDOW I COULD SEE for more
than 200 kilometers. Below me, in the near
distance, were tiny villages following a
winding road, little rivers of houses
meandering down the hill. Beyond them the
plains of northern Italy spread out as flat as a
tabletop, and farther still were the Cottian
Alps on the French border. It was something
you might glimpse from a plane while
climbing away from the airport. Instead, I was
sitting down to lunch at the Albergo Bucaneve.
The local landscape informs almost
everything about this hotel and spa in
Bielmonte, a tiny resort high in the hills of
Piedmont about 120 kilometers northwest of
Milan. The Albergo Bucaneve (bucaneve isItalian for “snowdrop”) sits at the heart of
the Oasi Zegna, a 100-square-kilometer park
owned and protected by Ermenegildo Zegna,
the Italian menswear company whose factory
has been based in the nearby town of Trivero
since 1910. But despite its relationship with
one of the world’s leading luxury brands, the
hotel is more responsive to flora and fauna
than to fashion.
Opened in 1963, the Albergo Bucaneve was
originally conceived as a restorative getaway
that benefited the workers in Zegna’s factory.
Following World War II, Ermenegildo Zegna,
the high-end fashion brand’s founder, built a
scenic road into the mountains called the
Panoramica and later added the hotel, alongFROM LEFT: Slow-
cooked egg in
fondue (top) and
raviolini in sugo
d’arrosto at the
Albergo Bucaneve
in Bielmonte,
Italy; the hotel’s
sitting room.
OPPOSITE: The
Monte Marca Hut,
a mountaintop café
in the Oasi Zegna,
is accessible from
the hotel by
chairlift.