Tivoli

Tivoli is the longer-running of the two Cortina Michelin-starred kitchens — Graziano Prest opened in 1992 above the village in the Lacedel hamlet, won the first star in 2008, and has held it uninterrupted for sixteen years. The room is built into a panoramic chalet at 1,600 metres with a 270-degree view of the Dolomites — Cinque Torri to the south, Cristallo to the east, Tofana to the west — and is the canonical Cortina view-driven dining experience.

Prest's cooking is contemporary Italian with a strong Veneto inflection — the chef trained in Venice and his palette is more Adriatic than the Ladin tradition that SanBrite leans into. Signatures include a hand-rolled cappellaccio with smoked Polesine eel and Treviso radicchio; a slow-roasted Cadore lamb with rosemary and a red-wine reduction; a hand-cut tagliolino with Bassano white asparagus and 40-month Parmigiano; the famous 'tiramisù di Tivoli' that the pastry chef Davide Ribaga has refined since 1995.

The wine list is the village's longest — 1,200 references — and runs deeper Italian than any other Cortina room. There are serious verticals of Sassicaia, Solaia, Tignanello and the Veneto's Amarone della Valpolicella; deep coverage of Trentino sparkling (Ferrari, Rotari) and Alto Adige whites (Terlan, Hofstätter, Manincor). Sommelier Davide De Manincor has worked with Prest since 2003 and runs an 'Italy by region' pairing flight at €110 that is the best wine-led dinner in the village.

The dining room holds forty-two covers across fourteen tables across two stone-walled rooms with a fireplace in the centre. Service is family-run and uniformed in a recognisably Italian Alpine style — captains in cream blazers, white tablecloths, a chef's-table in the open kitchen for two. The room runs at a moderate volume; on a clear winter night the panorama outside is the conversation. Tivoli is also the village's most reliable client-entertaining address — the room has hosted Olympic delegations, ski federations and aviation-industry dinners across three decades.

Tivoli is the impress-the-client room when the brief is gravitas. Sixteen years of unbroken Michelin tenure settles the question; the 270-degree Dolomites view does the rest of the work. Book the corner table by the south-facing window for the Cinque Torri view; ask Davide for the 'Italy by region' pairing — eight glasses across the country's serious wine regions, the closest thing to an Italian wine education in a single dinner.