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High-altitude wellness
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| Winter mountain vacations are no longer planned exclusively in terms of skiing requirements, increasingly including a more comprehensive, 360° approach to well-being. Besides, it's well known that there's no place like the mountains for recharging both body and spirit, restoring mental and physical harmony, far from the stress and hubbub of the city. |
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A week or just a short weekend can be enough time to relax and get back into physical shape. If you select a hotel offering services promoting well-being you can transform an ordinary vacation, based on enjoying nature and good food, into an important opportunity for self-regeneration.
Located in the picturesque Ampezzo valley just five minutes from the social whirl of Cortina, the Hotel Cristallo (Tel. 0436 88 11 11) offers its guests the latest in comfort, well-being and excellent cuisine.
Although, due to its location most guest are primarily interested in skiing, the hotel nevertheless boasts a full array of regenerative treatments and a staff highly trained in a variety of services designed to promote well-being.
After a strenuous day on the ski slopes, it's great to be able to treat yourself to a bio-energetic massage, undergo various customized treatments for getting back in shape or simply paddle around in the heated, covered swimming pool, featuring an adjoining hydromassage pool. And that's not all. After the icy chill of the ski slopes, there's nothing like rediscovering the toning qualities of heat as a source of well-being, surrendering to the drowsy warmth of a steam bath or the purifying dry roast of a sauna.
Plus, the Cristallo has its own in-house Isokinetic Sport Reconditioning Center which, thanks to a staff of physicians, rehabilitation therapists and athletic coaches, is able to offer guests a customized program to get them in shape for skiing.
The important thing is to find your own personal path to well-being, selecting from both traditional European and oriental treatments, taking time out for yourself, resting and forgetting the stress and hassle of the daily grind.Another oasis of good health and well-being in the Cortina area, the Park Hotel Faloria (Tel. 0436 2959) also features the famous Meloncino, one of the very best restaurants in the area. The owners of the hotel, the Melon family, proudly offer their guests the epitome in comfort and time-honored tradition with a long list of special services including a swimming pool equipped with hydromassage, a sauna and steam bath, not to mention a state-of-the-art aesthetic center.
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Another excellent way to eliminate impurities, toxins and stress, the hay treatment is a tradition with roots that go back to the culture of the Sciliar peasants who used to climb up to the high summer pastures to gather fodder for their animals. During the night they would always use the soft, freshly-mown hay as a mattress in order to take advantage of the remarkable therapeutic qualities they discovered it had. In order to try out this original alpine phytotherapy for yourself, you'll have to go about 35 km north of Cortina to the Hotel Caravan Park (0474/710444) in Sesto. The treatment still involves lying for around twenty minutes on a bed of alpine herbs and flowers that have been prepared in warm water. The lady's mantle, artemisia, fescue grass, valerian, lavender and the other herbs that compose this therapeutic bouquet begin to ferment and the heat that is released has a beneficial effect on the muscles, joints and bones. Once the treatment has been completed, you remain supine, wrapped in a woolen blanket to more gradually complete the sweating process. The detoxifying, dermatological and soothing effects of this alpine treatment are immediate.
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