Hotel Rosengarten ★★★★

High in the Italian Alps, just 20km east of the South Tyrol region's capital of Bolzano, the picturesque village of Nova Levante offers an idyllic location to base yourself to explore this renowned UNESCO World Heritage region in the beautiful Val d'Ega. In the middle of a lush green forest and next to the gondola that leads to the Carezza ski area is the Hotel Rosengarten.

This warm and welcoming contemporary hotel boasts décor of earthy shades and a feeling of intimacy with just 38 rooms. Relax in your elegant, relatively spacious surroundings with wood furnishings and a rustic traditional style. The hotel also offers lovely, light and refined cuisine, made with fresh seasonal produce and cooked with local spring water from the Niger Stream and with herbs collected from the surrounding forests and meadows.

Sustainability is at the heart of the hotel's ethos, and it's a certified "Klimahous A" hotel, meaning it meets energy criteria and uses various methods to ensure it lives up to this status. For example, the hotel is heated only with wood chips, principally uses plastic-free products and only seasonal and local items.

Whatever time of year you are here, there is plenty to do, from hiking, mountain biking or horse riding in summer to skiing, snowshoeing or tobogganing in the winter. After a day out in nature, relax in the hotel's Rose'SPA, making the most of its panoramic indoor pool with stunning mountain views or its five different types of sauna – choose between a Finnish sauna, a Turkish steam bath, herbal, infrared sauna and a Vitarium.

Make sure to catch the reflection of the Latemar in beautiful Lake Carezza. And, at sunset, watch the Rosengarten mountain range as it "blooms", glowing a fiery rosy red due to the optical phenomenon called the alpenglow.