THE ESCAPE

THE LOOKING GLASS  offers you a unique chance to spend your holiday surrounded by contemporary architecture in the most astonishing landscape that nature has to offer. In the summer months [June - September] the swimming pool is also accessible. THE LOOKING GLASS  is located in northern Italy, a region famous for its culinary delights - especially its exquisite wines and countless possibilities for outdoor activity! These two identical properties feature a terrace, seating, kitchen and dining areas and bathrooms with sumptuous bathrobes and large openable skylights to allow natural light and ventilation. There is also a small basement which serves for good temporary storage during your stay.

The property is located in the midst of apple orchards close to Bolzano and is surrounded by the spectacular Dolomite mountains where you can fully enjoy the experience to live in the middle of nature with maximum degree of privacy. Oriented towards the east with the private garden and an autonomous access and parking. Each building is shifted in height and length in order to loosen the entire structure and articulating their differentiation. Both are floating on a base above the ground evoking lightness beside offering better views from their cantilevering terraces to the impressive surrounding landscape. The volume opens towards the east with a big glass facade that fades with curvilinear lines into the black aluminium shell. Mirrored glass on the west facade catches the surrounding panorama with the pool while making the property almost invisible. 

Region
The quaint town of Bolzano on the other side of the Alps with its medieval castles, steepled churches, apple orchards, vineyards, frescoed wooden chalets and strudel-scented air! The citizens are Italian but simply do not feel Italian! Bolzano's local authorities estimate that German is spoken by 75% of the 510,000 inhabitants of the Alto Adige region. Locals, however, call it by its original name – South Tyrol – and many wish it were independent. Nestled in the mountains of the Alps [Austrian-Italian border] this is Italy's richest province and has been part of the country for almost 100 years. With the Austrian border to the north and Switzerland to the west its landscape is defined by peaks and forests. There are now road links from Innsbruck and Munich but most travellers fly to Verona and proceed north for a couple of hours by rail or hire car.

In the region's capital, Bolzano, there is Museion, a modern and contemporary art museum housed in a futurist oblong cube. Nowhere is intermingling of cultures more evident than in Bolzano. It is a small city with the German-speaking medieval centre on one side of the River Talvera and the predominantly Italian modern quarter on the other. Museion stands in the middle, and with its transparent facade it seems like it is uniting these two unlikely cultures. 

With mountains and valleys stretching from the Brenner Pass to the Salurner Klause it rivals Italy's most productive regions, the highly industrialised Lombardy and the Valle d'Aosta, in GDP per capita. The small province of South Tyrol is little more than half the size of the US state of Connecticut - it is so prosperous that it can pay its governor a better salary than that earned by the current US President Barack Obama! There is almost no unemployment in the area surrounding the capital Bolzano [known in German as Bozen], and the province is debt-free. Holiday makers flock to the region not only to tour the Dolomites and visit "Törggelen” festivals which showcase local food and wine in the autumn, but also because of its new boutique museums. 

Essentials
British Airways - [ba.com] flies twice daily from Gatwick to Verona

Closest supermarket - Interspar, open 7 days a week from 7.30am - 8.30pm and Sunday from 9am - 8pm 

Closest breakfast or lunch - Bivac, open Mon to Fri from 7.30am - 11:30pm and Sat from 8am - 7pm  www.salewa-bivac.com
 
Sushi Home Delivery Service - T 0471 981 111

Official city taxi number - T 0471 981 111

General emergency number - T 118