If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR321.82), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
In an idyllic pastoral pocket between Bolzano and Merano, aptly named Villa Arnica is a natural remedy in hotel form. Its by-the-vines setting in the pretty mountain town of Lana comes with calm-inducing Alpine scenery at every turn. Flavourful garden-to-table cuisine, using ingredients grown in the villa’s substantial plots, is a wholesome addition; the hotel’s outdoor pool is as panoramic as they come, and the Villa’s home-from-home welcome and lo-fi hospitality (bolstered by an honesty bar, library, and bikes to borrow) deftly put you at ease – this is bucolic balm for the soul.
Smith Extra
Get this when you book through us:
A bottle of sparkling Rocco (a non-alcoholic South Tyrol aperitivo speciality made from apples)
Noon, but flexible, subject to availability and an additional charge. Earliest check-in, 3pm.
Prices
Double rooms from £303.16 (€354), including tax at 10 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional local city tax of €1.90 per person per night on check-out.
More details
Rates include breakfast, served in the Poolhouse or salotto (parlour), depending on the season.
Also
This historic building is unfortunately not wheelchair accessible nor adapted for guests with mobility or sensory issues.
Hotel closed
Villa Arnica is open annually between April and November.
At the hotel
Gardens, yoga studio, library, bikes to borrow, honesty bar, lounge, gift shop, and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: air-conditioning, yoga mat, bathrobes, and Susanne Kaufmann bath products.
Our favourite rooms
The villa’s period details – vaulted ceilings, stately windows, original plasterwork – create an elegant backdrop for simple, mid-century-style interiors. Bag a Superior Room with a balcony if you can; for the most space, opt for a Junior Suite or Suite: both feature room to lounge, but only the latter has a freestanding tub as well as a shower.
Poolside
Away from the house, through the gardens, Villa Arnica’s outdoor pool is edged by parasol-shaded sunloungers and is adjacent to the open-sided Poolhouse. As a guest here, you can also use both pools at neighbouring Hotel Schwarzschmied.
Spa
Hotel Schwarzschmied’s Spa, which comes with outdoor treatment cabins, two saunas and steam bath, is open to Villa Arnica guests and accessible via the Villa’s garden. Book in for a signature facial or massage (using Susanne Kaufmann amenities, naturally), or work off those irresistible knödl at Schwarzschmied’s fitness room, which features free weights, resistance trainers, and timbered cardio equipment.
Packing tips
Villa Arnica’s period polish is an ideal foil for printed silks, drop-waist dresses, feather-light shawls and deco-style jewels, although by day you won’t need anything other than practical threads for embracing the great outdoors.
Also
As well as enjoying spa and pool access at Hotel Schwarzschmied, you’re welcome to join the neighbouring hotel’s free yoga classes and guided hikes.
The 10-bedroom Villa Arnica is an adults-only stay: for family-friendly lodgings in Lana, Hotel Schwarzschmied next door is your best option.
Sustainability efforts
Villa Arnica’s eco credentials rest on its hyperlocal supply chain: a vast kitchen garden and greenhouse in the grounds supply not just the Villa but also its sister hotels, and keep the hotel menus seasonal with low food miles. Other kitchen produce comes straight from local farmers and producers, and the hotel works with nearby suppliers for everything from building repairs to laundry.
There’s a refined elegance to any table in the salotto; at the Poolhouse, the conviviality of the long table is in the spirit of Villa Arnica’s home-from-home welcome.
Dress Code
Casual is fine but, despite the pool locale, you’ll want to cover up your swimwear.
Hotel restaurant
A Continental breakfast of pastries, breads, yoghurt, cereals, coffee and juices is curated daily, bolstered by a choice of hot dishes cooked to order. Depending on the season, it’s served either in the salotto (parlour) or the Poolhouse. The latter is also the setting for a modest lunch service of garden-to-table plates; or take afternoon tea with freshly baked sweet treats in the cool of the poolside shade. Twice a week, in summer months, this is also where owner Klaus invites guests to gather, at a long table under the arbour, and savour whatever alchemy chef Jean Paul has worked, using the day’s harvest.
Hotel bar
There’s no minibar in your room, no mixologist in the salotto – but aperitivi urges are easily soothed via a modest cabinet of delights in the parlour, aka Villa Arnica’s honesty bar, that you’re welcome to help yourself to and jot down in the book. Or enjoy drinks in the garden, whenever the Poolhouse is open: as well as your choice of coffee, this is the place to order homemade Vermouth, an Arnica Spritz or Campari Soda.
Last orders
Breakfast is served, 8am until 11am; for lunch, dine between noon and 5pm.
Room service
There’s an additional charge for room service, which allows you to order from the breakfast or lunch menus, following service hours (see above), when the kitchen’s open.
Villa Arnica is between Bolzano and Merano, in the idyllic mountain resort of Lana in South Tyrol.
Planes
Bolzano is the nearest airport, a 25-minute drive from the hotel, with regional flights and a few international connections on the Continent (which vary by season). Verona and Innsbruck are the nearest international hubs, each around two hours away by road. The hotel can arrange transfers from/to Bolzano at extra cost; for other airports, you’ll need to make your own arrangements.
Trains
Lana-Postal/Lana-Burgstall is the nearest station, with direct trains to Brennero or Bolzano, and the hotel can arrange free transfers.
Automobiles
There’s free outdoor parking at the hotel, or you can use the covered parking 50 metres away at sister stay, Hotel Schwarzschmied.
Worth getting out of bed for
Villa Arnica’s co-ords in Lana, between Merano and Bolzano in the heart of South Tyrol, are catnip to outdoorsy types, who’ll revel in its wraparound mountain scenery at the gateway to the Ultental valley/Val d’Ultimo. This is a landscape of waterfalls, cool mountain lakes, forested slopes, and of course walking trails: start with the nearest, above the town itself along the Waalweg. Or take a cable car (new in 2023) up to the Vigiljoch nature reserve, up at 1,700 metres, which has 100 kilometres of trails through forest and meadows, plus a wealth of traditional dining spots on the mountain to plan your route around. Higher still, the mountains of the Nonsberg, centred around the twin peaks of the Laugenspitze, come with a day-long circuit over tough terrain to challenge experienced hikers. More genteel pastimes can be found in the spa town of Merano: spy its Monocle Shop, mooch around its mediaeval arcades, and wander the botanical gardens at Trauttmansdorff Castle. Whether you head to Merano or Bolzano, each of these Tyrolean strongholds could easily fill a day. Lana itself is a village of churches, monasteries and castles, with pretty Romanesque architecture and – as the vines behind Villa Arnica suggest – you’re in Tyrolean wine country. Fermenting hotspots include the local monastery, and Arunda Sektkellerei in Mölten/Meltina; at nearby Zollweghof winery, there are private cellar tours and a weekly Friday walking tour. Just up the road, Kränzelhof winery is also open for guided tours if you book at least a day ahead.
Local restaurants
‘Slow food’ is the proud mantra of La Fucina, a light-filled, parquet-floored restaurant, steps away at Hotel Schwarzschmied. Using produce from Villa Arnica’s garden, valley-sourced meat, fish and dairy, its chef de cuisine Andreas Pircher oversees light, fresh plates that call on Tyrolean tradition, accompanied by wines from Lana and the wider Alto Adige region. At the Kränzelhof winery, Miil is an upscale dining spot for seasonal fine dining showcasing Tyrolean produce and house bottles. In Algund/Lagundo, head to Zur Blaue Traube for an eight-course tasting menu, served nightly at 7pm, which changes daily but champions nose-to-tail cuisine.
Local bars
Lana brewery, restaurant and gardens, Pfefferlechner, serves flagons of craft beer (and rustic regional plates) to chequer-clothed tables.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this boutique, storied stay in Lana and unpacked their grappa and honey, a full account of their bucolic break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here’s a quick peek inside Villa Arnica in South Tyrol…
Snapshots from Villa Arnica, a blissed-out bucolic stay in the heart of South Tyrol: light-filled corridors framed by arched doorways; pergola-shaded walkways through tranquil gardens; ornate wrought-iron grills; sunlight catching on decorative plasterwork… There’s a homey feel to this storied 10-room stay that encourages lingering (you can book it for exclusive use, too). Fix yourself a drink from the honesty bar, leaf through a tome from the villa’s library, wander the gardens, or take a disco nap beside the pool. The spa, free yoga and hikes offered at Hotel Schwarzschmied next door are open to Villa guests. Or borrow a bicycle and wheel around the quaint lanes of this centuries-old mountain town. The great outdoors is the main draw here – hiking, mountain biking, and alfresco dips in mountain lakes – but Lana’s fertile plains also serve up sybaritic pleasures, thanks to an abundance of wineries nearby and a proudly regional restaurant scene that begins with rustic garden-to-table plates fresh from the plot at Villa Arnica.
