Hol4All: l'Alta Badia model of inclusion with Allianz Foundation and Azzurri Champions Mazzel and Ghedina

The selfies, applause and smiles were all for them: Kristian Ghedina, the legend of Italjet in the 1990s, and Chiara Mazzel, the Paralympic alpine skiing champion who won one gold and three silver medals at the Paralympic Winter Games in Milan Cortina 2026 and was also the flag bearer of the Italian delegation. Chiara and Kristian were the exceptional godmother and godfather that the Allianz UMANA MENTE Foundation, the main expression of the Allianz Group’s social responsibility initiatives in Italy, invited to Corvara in Badia (Bolzano) to celebrate the first 2026 session of Hol4All, the integration and social participation project designed to offer a vacation to children and young people with complex disabilities or rare diseases, together with their families.

Maurizio Devescovi, General Director of Allianz S.p.A. and President of the Allianz UMANA MENTE Foundation, emphasized, “It is with pride that we celebrate the first five years of Hol4All, a project that over time has proven to be able to generate a real impact on the lives of families and the territories that host us. Over these years we have accompanied hundreds of people in inclusive experiences, while at the same time helping to build skills, services and an increasingly widespread culture of accessibility. Hol4All today is not just a vacation: it is a model of inclusion that creates value in the long run.”

From March 27 to 31, 16 families are spending their stay at the TH Greif Hotel in Corvara, a long-standing partner in the project, supported by a team composed of educators, psychologists, doctors, ski instructors and volunteers – including Allianz employees – in the many sports, artistic and recreational activities of the rich program designed for parents, siblings and young people with disabilities. On Friday, March 27, the Open Day on the snow was held: a special day dedicated to inclusion and also open to outside participants.

Alpine skiing champion Chiara Mazzel inspired everyone with her example of resilience, sharing the emotions of her recent sports victories at the Paralympics in Milan Cortina: gold in the women’s “vision impaired” Super-G, and three times Silver in the Downhill, Combined and again in the women’s Giant. Originally from Val di Fassa, just turned 30 and visually impaired since the age of 18, Chiara recounted the races, the victories, the podiums, but also the serious injury that will cause her to rupture the cruciate and menisci of her left knee in 2023. An injury that jeopardized her sports career, but Chiara did not give up and faced the new battle to resume skiing with tenacity and inner strength. Finally, after much effort and sacrifice, she wins her challenge by achieving great sporting successes, crowned also by the satisfaction of being the Italian flag bearer in Milan Cortina. His motto is: always go forward. Never give up and give it your all to overcome obstacles and win challenges.

Kristian Ghedina, appreciation and symbol of Italjet in the 1990s, was the godfather of the social ski race dedicated to people with disabilities, organized by the Allianz UMANA MENTE Foundation on March 30 at the Corvara Ski School. Ghedina, who joined young visually impaired skier Martina Vozza in the project conceived by Allianz “Sognando Milano Cortina 2026: sulle spalle dei Giganti,” brought his experience and enthusiasm to promote the values of sport as a tool for inclusion.

The Hol4All project of the Allianz UMANA MENTEN Foundation Launched in 2021, the project has gradually expanded its scope: from the first 20 families in the pilot session, it has come to involve a growing number of households over the years, from all over Italy, reaching four annual sessions and 71 beneficiary families in 2024, followed by additional sessions with 65 families and 69 volunteers in 2025. From its inception to the end of 2025, the project has seen the participation of 221 families and 250 children and youth with disabilities.

The impact on family well-being is significant: all parents reported feeling less lonely during the stays, almost all reported a strong sense of security, and youth with disabilities expressed very high levels of happiness and involvement. For parents, Hol4All is a truly inclusive and accessible vacation, with significant benefits on psychological well-being, quality of family and social relationships, and positive spillover effects on daily life as well.Activities dedicated to winter sports included skiing and snowboarding, made accessible thanks to specific aids-including monoski, dualski, BASS and Go to ski-and the support of specialized instructors. Throughout the season, through the Foundation, two of these aids were made available to Alta Badia’s six ski schools.

The snow sessions, launched in 2023, have helped make Alta Badia an increasingly accessible and inclusive area. Before the project, there were only two instructors qualified to teach and transport children and people with disabilities; today, thanks in part to the courses promoted by the Allianz UMANA MENTE Foundation and conducted by the national technicians of the Italian Federation of Paralympic Winter Sports – FISIP, the number of qualified instructors has already risen to fifteen.

Andy Varallo, President of the Alta Badia Cable Car Consortium, explains, “The Hol4All project has had a concrete impact on our territory. Thanks to the collaboration with the Allianz UMANA MENTE Foundation, we have developed skills, trained instructors and introduced tools that now make our ski area increasingly accessible to people with disabilities, strengthening a model of inclusive and open tourism, raising awareness among our staff to facilitate access for people with disabilities to the lifts.”

During the stay in Corvara, new ski instructors in the territory qualified to teach people with disabilities were presented, as well as innovations introduced by the ski area to improve accessibility. Among the new aids available in the area is the BASS – Borney Adapted Snowboard System, the first device in the world designed to bring people with disabilities closer to snowboarding, donated by Casa Costa Foundation ETS, which complements the monoski and dualski made available by the Allianz Foundation.

Michil Costa, environmental activist and hotelier and founder of the Casa Costa Foundation, emphasizes, “The mountain excludes by inertia. Intervening means removing obstacles one at a time, to make it accessible in a stable and structural way, not episodic. Tourism becomes regenerative when it broadens possibilities in a concrete and lasting way, and it is in this direction that we want to help make Alta Badia increasingly accessible.”

The hospitality sector has also gained important benefits from this inclusive growth path. “Thanks to Hol4All we have taken an important step toward more authentically inclusive hospitality,” said Maria Debellini, Vice President and COO TH Resorts. Today it is above all the people who work in our facilities who are more aware and prepared to respond to the needs of people with disabilities and their families, helping to spread a culture of attentive, accessible and aware hospitality.”

Open Day, inclusive ski vacations, instructor training and accessibility are part of the broader commitment of the Allianz UMANA MENTE Foundation in winter sports, brought together in the “Winter Sports Inclusion” project, which over the years has built a network of skills, relationships and tools, transforming an accessible tourism project into a virtuous story of inclusion and collaborations that benefit the most fragile people.

The next project sessions scheduled for 2026 will take place at the following dates and locations:

June 14-18, 2026
Location: TH Marina di Sibari – Baia degli Achei Village, in the province of Cosenza.
September 1-5, 2026
Location: TH Courmayeur, in the Aosta Valley.
September 7-12, 2026
Location: TH Madonna di Campiglio, in the province of Trento.
December 13-17, 2026
Location: TH Madonna di Campiglio, in the province of Trento.