Snow-Business Legend

The Hotel Cristallo's history reads like a rock star's autobiography: there's the sudden success, the fame, the adulation, the troubled times, the seemingly unstoppable decline. And, inevitably, the comeback. Ten years after the Cristallo closed its shutters, the veteran sashayed back onstage, looking more glamorous than ever. That was in 2001, and the luxury five-star hotel in the Italian ski resort of Cortina is still rocking its clientele. "We loved the idea of starting again," says Paola Gualandi, whose entrepreneurial clan now owns the Cristallo. "And Cortina is very popular and upscaleeverybody wants to be here."

The...