The amazing story of the Paradiso Pure.Living Vegan Hotel

The Paradiso Pure.Living Vegan Hotel on the Seiser Alm was once a typical, traditional mountain hotel: skiing in winter, hiking in summer, and hearty South Tyrolean cuisine with pork knuckles and Kaiserschmarrn. When Valeria Caldarelli and her husband took over the then 30-year-old hotel in 1994, they could hardly have imagined what it would become: a flagship for a vegan, artistic and nature-loving lifestyle that attracts guests from 14 different countries every year.

A hotelier family goes vegan

Alexander and Maximilian Spögler, the two hosts of the Paradiso Pure.Living Vegan Hotel, talked to Green PearlsⓇ about their often challenging and difficult journey to become the first vegan hotel on the Seiser Alm. It all started with their youngest sister, Franziska, who has been vegan for a long time, having not eaten animals since childhood. Who would have thought that this decision would eventually lead to several hotels going vegan!

The brothers say their mother was the second to change her diet. She became vegan overnight after being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. This has had a huge impact on her two older sons, Alexander and Maximilian. “I think she’s fitter than all of us now! When you see firsthand the impact of diet on health, you know there has to be more to it,” Maximilian sums up.

Italy’s first 100% vegan hotel opens its doors

It was their mother, Valeria Caldarelli, who opened the first fully vegan hotel in Italy in 2016. She had been vegan herself for about ten years, but it took time (and courage) to bring her new awareness to the hotel. Together with extensive renovations, she transformed the previously conventionally run hotel “SUNNWIES” in Naturns, South Tyrol, into the adults-only LA VIMEA Vegan Hotel. But it’s not just the food that’s vegan – the entire interior, materials and cosmetics are vegan, too. She has created a nature-loving place with daily yoga and meditation classes, Ayurvedic treatments, a saltwater pool and a natural swimming pond.

In 2018, daughter Franziska and her husband Benjamin Posch (also vegan and from the hotel industry) opened the lovingly renovated country house Vegan Agrivilla I Pini in Tuscany. It is surrounded by its own organic farm, which supplies the vegan hotel kitchen with food.

The brothers Maximilian and Alexander of Paradiso Pure.Living also took a step in this direction. They were already vegan and wanted to convert their hotel completely. But it was not easy, as Alexander explains: “The Alpe di Siusi is a bit more difficult. Even going vegetarian was a very drastic step. We then marketed it as vegetarian [from 2019], but 80 percent of the food has always been vegan.” Their concern at the time was the altitude of the hotel and the clientele of the Alpe di Siusi. And their concerns were not unfounded.

The change to vegetarian-vegan: Guests stayed away and employees left

The decline was immense. According to the Spögler brothers, they lost about 80 percent of their regular customers as a result of the change. And that wasn’t all. Almost the entire team left in 2019. Then came the coronavirus pandemic the following year, which made the first few years anything but easy.

But the brothers persevered. A new team emerged, which today is about 95 percent vegan.

New team and new guests

Ethics, health and the environment are the three main reasons for a vegan lifestyle, Alexander explains when asked why he decided to go vegan. If you look at factory farming and intensive livestock farming, you automatically ask yourself if you really want to support and finance this cruelty to animals,” he adds. For him, his brother and most of their employees, all three pillars are important.

With the rise of vegetarian and vegan lifestyles, the brothers have noticed another effect: at a time when it is difficult for the industry to find employees, it is comparatively easy for them. Almost every day, they receive applications from all over Europe from people who explicitly want to work at Paradiso – because of its plant-based concept.

The situation is similar with the guests. Eight out of ten people say that Paradiso is not the right place for them, but two would only come there for this reason, the brothers summarize. In addition, since the change, new guests are coming to the hotel from farther and farther away. Vegan honeymooners travel from countries such as Israel and the United States to spend their honeymoon at an altitude of 2,000 meters, surrounded by pure nature. “We are the niche of the niche of the niche,” Alexander describes with a laugh. And that’s why some people come here. Not only vegans, but also flexitarians and meat eaters who are curious and open to the experience.

“When these components come together, the whole thing becomes more than just a hotel, more than just a place to sleep and eat. It is a place where like-minded people come together and share ideas. And that creates something unique and beautiful.” – Maximilian Sprögler

Going 100% vegan with new chef

In 2024, the restaurant switched to a completely vegan (cuisine) concept. Once again, guests stayed away. While vegetarian food was still acceptable to some, the situation was different with a purely vegan cuisine. Milk, eggs and cheese are no longer available at Paradiso since 2024. Instead, there are delicious and healthy plant-based alternatives. “Many who try it come back,” Alexander reveals.

One reason for the success of the vegan focus is the collaboration with Greek chef Aggeliki Charami. She took over the Paradiso kitchen in the winter season 2023/24. The Stuttgarter Zeitung described the young woman as the “rock star of vegan cuisine“. The Spögler brothers also expressed their enthusiasm and respect for the chef in an interview. “She is an artist, a very professional artist with both feet on the ground. That’s extremely hard to find,” says Alexander, and Maximilian adds: “We know a lot of chefs, vegan and non-vegan, and what she does is unique.”

For Aggeliki, cooking is not just about making delicious food, it is an art form. She relies on local produce as well as specialties such as the affectionately named “chicken of the woods,” a Sicilian tree mushroom. Its taste and texture are reminiscent of chicken and won over the two brothers from the start. She has also created “smoked seitan steak,” “seaweed caviar,” and an “egg” with a “yolk” made from pumpkin.

OMNIA Plant-Based Restaurant – Vegan Performance Cuisine

The Spögler brothers not only give Aggeliki a lot of freedom, they also opened a new restaurant with her: OMNIA. It seats only about ten guests in the evening. They are treated to a unique nine-course vegan meal that lasts about three hours. Chef Aggeliki herself and her team present the dishes to the guests. She tells them her story and explains the connection between the dishes they are enjoying. Guests have even been known to shed tears during this culinary experience.

One family – three vegan hotels

Valeria Caldarelli (LA VIMEA Vegan Hotel), Alexander and Maximilian Spögler (Paradiso Pure.Living Vegan Hotel) and Franziska and Benjamin Posch (Vegan Agrivilla I Pini) are all members of the same family and have achieved a great deal for vegan tourism in Italy. They were the first to have the courage to implement this concept consistently and holistically, and to do so successfully.

Alexander hopes that many will follow and appeals to his colleagues: “Believe in what you are doing and don’t do things half-heartedly! So don’t say you’re offering ‘more’ vegetarian or vegan options, go all the way!” The two are not worried about potential competition. In fact, they would welcome it.

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