At the 296-room Trapp Family Lodge, Kristina (von Trapp) Frame recounted her family’s story over wine, lingonberry jam and perfectly tender Wiener schnitzel, while a harp player gently competed for guests’ attention.

Frame is the granddaughter of Maria von Trapp, whose life story inspired The Sound of Music. My first glimpse of the family lodge—today, it has 296 guest rooms, and everywhere, red peonies and edelweiss, Austria’s native flower, adorn it—set the tone for what I knew would be an unforgettable weekend. You can almost hear Julie Andrews singing in these hills.

It is easy to see why the von Trapps established their home in Stowe: The lodge, nestled in a charming Vermont ski village buffeted by the spectacular Green Mountains, must have reminded the Trapps of the original Villa Trapp at the foot of Austria’s Tyrolean Alps.

In the documentary, The Real Maria, which plays daily in the lodge, Maria von Trapp, née Kutschera, says her love for those original Austrian mountains inspired her to enter the Nonnberg Abbey in Salzburg to study for the novitiate.

But fate intervened, and the Reverend Mother sent Maria to the home of Captain Georg Ritter von Trapp, a naval war hero and widower, to tutor his bedridden daughter. The captain fell in love with the young, engaging woman. They married and had three children together, Rosemarie, Eleonore and Johannes, Frame’s father, and the youngest of the 10 children.

In 1938, the family arrived in the United States as the von Trapp Family Singers, touring the country and then settling in Stowe. While the family left Austria because of the Nazis, Frame explains that “it was not as desperate an escape” as depicted in the movie. Still, it was urgent for them to leave, as they had thumbed their noses up at Adolf Hitler three times, including his request that the captain serve in the Nazi navy. Frame, a Level III ski instructor, now co-manages the lodge with her brother and their father.

A walk of the grounds offers surprises, such as the family’s cemetery, where the captain and Maria rest. A short hike and climb reveal the family’s private stone chapel, and other trails wind throughout the lodge’s 2,400 acres. A bakery sells apple strudel and Linzer tarts.

Nearby is Stowe Mountain Resort. In winter, this playground boasts 40 miles of downhill skiing, while in clement months, visitors enjoy gondola rides and hikes. The resort’s Stowe Mountain Lodge has a spa and currently is undergoing $400 million in construction of additional lodges and villas, as well as a state-of-the-art snowmaking system.

I opted for the gondola ride up Mount Mansfield, Vermont’s highest peak at 4,395 feet. The view was breathtaking. To reach the very top, I discovered an obscure little trail to the left of the Cliff House restaurant. It was a difficult climb, but the dense forest, crisp pine air and scenic views were well worth the sweat and stumbles over rocky terrain. A less strenuous option, the Toll Road, allows you to drive directly to the summit.

The next day, sore from the excursion, I lugged my aching body to the Stoweflake Mountain Resort & Spa, another of the town’s exquisite spas. After a vigorous massage, I dipped beneath an equally strenuous blast from the spa’s 12-foot-high massaging waterfall. My cares slipped away in steam and foam.

Nightfall brings no less to do in Stowe. Trattoria La Festa, a cozy Italian restaurant, or Mr. Pickwick’s, known for its fish and chips and an amazing beer and Scotch menu, were easily accessible on Route 100. Also during my visit, several festivals presented the opportunity to try Vermont’s local brews. A tour of Ben & Jerry’s factory proved no less engaging and was certainly worth the calories in ice cream. I even ventured out one evening to a play at the Town Hall Theatre, where the Stowe Theatre Guild presents entertaining shows in a quaint setting. The show we saw was a comedy written by Stowe’s very own Carole Vasta Folley, who currently is fine-tuning a stage version of the film The Full Monty, which plays at the Town Hall Theatre for three weeks starting on June 24.

Stowe is a quintessential New England village, one that rescues the New York traveler from the stresses of a busy, traffic-ridden life. It offers comfort, history, plenty to do and mountain life that seems as far away as Salzburg, Austria.

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