Principe delle Nevi, part of The M Legacy, has no shortage of calling cards. You can ski straight out of the door in the wonderful Breuil-Cervinia, wake up facing the Matterhorn, and spend an afternoon in a spa that takes its time. Read a few guest reviews, though, and you notice how often the conversation drifts towards the table. The cuisine definitely deserves attention. So that is where we are heading.

Breakfast comes first, because the hotel clearly takes it seriously. The smell of fresh bread greets you, and alongside it sit homemade cakes and jams, mountain yoghurt, Alpine butter and local honey, all eaten with the Matterhorn in the window. Throughout the day, a bistro serves lunch and snacks made with local ingredients, which is handy when you come off the slopes hungry. Then there is dinner: four courses in a dining room of warm wood and candlelight, travelling from the Aosta Valley out across the wider world. It all belongs to the ¾ board, so the food sits at the heart of the stay rather than being an extra.

Then there is the cellar, which deserves a paragraph of its own. A passage leads to a tunnel carved into the rock and lined with bottles that tell the story of Italy. The hotel calls it a small museum of wine, full of rare grapes and brave choices. And rightly so. The sommelier leads the tastings, which is a long way from being handed a list and left to guess. No need to book an outside tasting event; everything you need is there.

Plenty of ski hotels feed their guests. Fewer make the food part of the reason you chose them. Principe delle Nevi does, and the consistency is what sets it apart: the same care at eight in the morning over the yoghurt as at nine at night over the wine. For anyone who wants a serious meal without leaving the building, it is one of the strongest tables in Cervinia.

Guests say as much. Gabriele P. chose half board and wrote on Google that both breakfast and dinner “exceeded expectations”, praising “high-quality products, great variety” and cooking that was “truly excellent”. Lunch and the wine list earned praise too. Notice what he does not do: he never singles out one dish. He is describing a whole day of eating, and that is harder to fake.

Cervinia gives you plenty of reasons to earn that dinner. The slopes connect with Zermatt, so a morning can end in Switzerland, and your legs will let you know by evening. Back home, the centre of Cervinia is an easy stroll, and in the warmer months the little Lago Blu catches the Matterhorn in its water. The Aosta Valley is Italy’s smallest wine region, yet it grows vines at serious altitude, which makes good conversation when the sommelier opens a bottle. Afterwards, the terrace is the place for stars.

At Principe delle Nevi, the mountain sets the scene. Dinner is the reason you linger.