Immediately after the Second World War, the Municipality of Tesero had a small refuge built on the Pampeago mountain pasture, which was entrusted to the management of Pierin Piazzi, Valerio’s grandfather. It was a very humble building, active especially during summer as a refreshment point for those who worked in the woods or during summer hay season. When Pierin was no longer able to take care of the refuge, he left the management to his son Luigino. So, in 1962, Luigino and Giuseppina (Valerio’s parents) moved to Pampeago. They happily spent the next five years there, serving workers and tourists delicious dishes of homemade polenta and fresh mushrooms, picked in the forest every morning.

Italy discovers mass skiing tourism and also the Alpe di Pampeago is equipped to satisfy the increasing number of guests.

With the beginning of the construction of the ski resorts, the refuge was sold by the municipality to a new company. Luigino and Giuseppina were then forced to leave what for them was “home and workplace”, to abandon the peaks and move to the centre of the village of Tesero.

Fate, however, was on their side: two years later Luigi, Giuseppina and little Valerio managed to return to the refuge. At this point that the adventure of the progressive transformation of that small meeting place immersed in nature began, it became first a restaurant and then a hotel.

The tradition that guides the family in the construction of the new facilities begins with Luigino and continues with Valerio: eleven newly built rooms in line with the commitment and constancy that have turned the few square meters of the refuge into a cozy hotel with forty rooms, equipped with all comforts. His wife Ilaria and their 3 children help him in the business.