A challenging climb takes you to the 3343 metres of Punta Penia. Once at the top, on the peak of the Queen of the Dolomites, with eyes full of beauty and a light heart, you can only wish for a little refreshment.

And it is right up there, on the roof of the Marmolada, that you find Capanna Punta Penia: a spartan and essential refuge, but with a big heart. The cuisine is simple and genuine, as is the tradition of those who live and work at high altitudes. The menu changes according to what the pantry offers, but there are always the great classics waiting for you: a warm and regenerating soup, a pasta dish with tomato or ragout, the stew with polenta, the house desserts - strudel and tarts in the first place. All cooked on the old wood stove. A little luxury up here.

The history of Capanna Punta Penia has its roots in the 1940s, when the mountain guide Giovanni Brunner of Canazei transformed a former Austrian military garrison from the First World War into a refuge, recovering the materials brought up by the soldiers between 1915 and 1917. Today the Hut also offers six beds for those who want to live the unique experience of a night suspended between earth and sky, anchored to the rock with sturdy steel rods. And in the morning, when the light filters through the windows and outside it's just silence and clouds, you discover that waking up here... it's really a small miracle.