This year we hosted our spa living retreat in Italy to experience a wellness lifestyle in the birthplace of the modern spa culture.

We enjoyed a Tuscan lifestyle at Villa Lucia in Montevettolini located in a region of Italy known for its spacious countryside, surrounded of picturesque towns and villages, thermal mineral springs, thermal grottos and the famous fango mud.

Our program included visits to two of Italy’s most famous spa centers for a classic European spa experience. The largest and most famous of Tuscany’s spa towns, Montecatini Terme, has been revered for its curative waters since at least the 16th century, when the first baths were built here. We explored the spa complex and received the spa’s signature therapy package including use of the facilities, pools, a body scrub, massage and therapeutic bath. To finally visit this place that I’ve known about for so long was truly amazing and drinking the medicinal thermal water as well as soaking in them was a very authentic (and effective!) experience.

We also visited Grotta Giusti, world famous for its unique thermal grotto; a fascinating natural cave with a hot water underground lake in which guests enjoyed a relaxing and detoxifying steam bath. In addition to the steam baths, this spa day included a fango mud therapy treatment, the spa center and a spacious relaxation zone. The open-air thermal swimming pool completed the experience with waterfalls and jacuzzi jets for muscle relaxation.

This spa center is more modernized however still very different then today’s modern, manicured spas that so many of us in the US are used to. I actually overheard one of the girls saying “I take a spa in Vegas any day!” However no one denied how relaxed they felt after soaking in the healing mineral rich waters, making total sense of the latin phrase “Sanitas Per Aquam” (a backronym of the word SPA) meaning “health through water”.

We also had plenty of time to take in the scenery and enjoy authentic Italian cuisine that Lucy & George at Villa Lucia prepared.  A special treat was their hi-grade, organic, raw olive oil from the olives grown right on the property where we was staying.

We indulged in all the aspects of living the healthful lifestyle every day, all day for 6 full days!

Visit our website to learn more about our Spa Living Retreat: http://www.spalivingretreat.com/