Laurin Restaurant

Laurin is the dining room of the Park Hotel Laurin, an Art Nouveau jewel built in 1910 a short walk from Piazza Walther. The hotel itself is the most beautiful in Bolzano — frescoed ceilings, period furniture, an entire wall of King Laurin murals in the bar — and the dining room and adjoining garden hold up the same standard.

The kitchen, under chef Manuel Astuto, runs a precise Mediterranean-Italian programme with regular incursions into Alto Adige. The seasonal tasting menu changes monthly and might include hand-rolled tortelli of mountain cheese, local trout with Lagrein reduction, or Alpine lamb with juniper. The dishes arrive plated with restraint, and the kitchen never overreaches.

In the warmer months — May through September — the tables in the chestnut-shaded garden are the seats to request. They are widely held to be the most romantic in Bolzano, and they are where most of the city's important proposals and anniversaries quietly happen. Inside, the Stüberl with its 1910 woodwork holds the same magic in winter.

It is the rare Bolzano restaurant where the ambience equals the food in importance — a building, a garden, and a kitchen all working in concert toward exactly the right kind of evening.

The chestnut-shaded garden in summer and the frescoed Art Nouveau interior in winter make this the obvious choice for an important question. The pacing is generous enough to find the right moment between courses.