For those of us accustomed to beginning the day with a dip, there are few sights more gratifying than a pool with no one else in it. The one I’ve encountered at the end of a long, opulent marble-lined corridor, with its fountain on one side, and darts of winter sun sneaking in at the other, is particularly alluring. I swim up to a glass wall only for it to slide open and usher me through a channel as if into a Bond villain’s lair, whereupon I’m suddenly swimming outside. Little whorls of steam vaporise into the bracing atmosphere, a full moon lingers lazily in a flawless azure sky, and the sun seems to be doing in January what it’s supposed to do in June.
On the hill opposite is the medieval old town of Fiuggi, an hour or so inland from Rome. With the sun’s rays trained on it like a spotlight, the multi-coloured hotchpotch of houses cascading down the hillside like bricks of Lego is as clear as crystal. The G7, no strangers to a spectacular location, recently convened a meeting up there, gazing down across superlative views. I’m guessing my view looking up, though, is better.
Palazzo Fiuggi, a medical wellness spa opened in 2021, is housed in a very grand building presiding over Fiuggi’s new town. Constructed as the Grand Hotel Palazzo della Fonte in 1913 in what was a fashionable spa town, during its 1930s heyday, it hosted the likes of Pablo Picasso and opera singer Enrico Caruso, who delivered impromptu performances in the ballroom. In the post-war period, Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman might be found sauntering amidst the chestnut trees of the hotel’s 20-acre park. Following a meticulous $32m facelift, it re-emerges, fully repurposed and ready to satisfy a seemingly insatiable 21st-century appetite for all things wellness.
Stay
First impressions inside the capacious lobby, with its huge ceilings and marble pillars, is all very Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel-esque. Whilst much is preserved of the original Liberty (Italian art nouveau) features, the style template is relatively restrained, though the 102 lavishly appointed rooms and suites are no less cossetting for that. The Royal Suite, originally created for King Vittorio Emanuele (in residence at the time) to sign Italy’s participation in WWI into law, with its 1500 sq-ft terrace, is perhaps the standout accommodation. There’s also the seven-bed Villa Luisa, a few hundred yards away, for families and larger groups.
Underneath Palazzo Fiuggi, a new stylishly conceived 65,000 sq-ft spa and wellness complex is now the beating heart of the property. It draws a new breed of celebrity, more concerned with cryotherapy than the baccarat table. In 2023, Oprah turned up with a coterie of friends and declared it the best wellness spa she’d ever encountered, immediately generating 500 reservation requests in her wake.
What Oprah’s disciples were seeking access to is one of the most impressively equipped and professionally operated medical wellness spas in Europe, ensconced 2,300 ft up in the wonderfully wild Apennine foothills. The air is purer than a convent full of nuns, and the waters have been healing visitors since Pope Boniface VIII arrived in the 14th century seeking a cure for his kidney stones. Michelangelo was also an early visitor.
It’s possible to stay at Palazzo Fiuggi as if in a regular hotel, but hardly anyone does. Though there are new three- and five-day programmes available, individually tailored stays of between one and three weeks are the norm, where the retreat’s maxim: for a longer life, better lived, is enthusiastically embraced in every direction.
The Presidential Suite
Dine
The promulgation of food as medicine is an integral component of Palazzo Fiuggi’s guiding ethos. It’s difficult to imagine a more suitable overseer of this culinary concept than Heinz Beck, the Head Chef. At his restaurant, La Pergola, Beck has long been revered as Rome’s first and (at the time of writing) the city’s only three-Michelin-starred chef. What is less known about this fascinating force of gastronomic nature is how deeply Beck delves into the scientific underpinnings of nutrition. He authors academic papers on the subject, conducting his own extensive research from a kitchen that resembles a mini laboratory.
Having a chef delivering health-conscious cooking is one thing. Having a three-Michelin-starred maestro who’s also a leading authority on dietetic excellence is quite another. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Beck used the downtime to create over 1,200 low-calorie recipes. The ones on the menu card placed at our table each day, that began with ginger shots and turmeric capsules, were all as delectable as they sounded: barley on zucchini scapece style and saffron infusion, or, spices marinated salmon bites with red chicory and pomegranate molasses.
At first sight, the portions seem Oliver Twist tiny, but Beck’s magical menus manage to be both adequate and delicious. Coffee and alcohol are verboten, though there are plans to introduce a slightly less stringent menu, albeit in a separate dining room to the majestic Sala Four Continents, with its frescoes and huge Murano glass chandeliers. Quite right too, I’m not sure I’d want the next table tucking into a T-bone while I’m still toiling away with the turmeric.
The capacious lobby, with its huge ceilings and marble pillars, Palazzo Fiuggi is all very Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel-esque. Whilst much is preserved of the original Liberty (Italian art nouveau) features, the style template is relatively restrained, though the 102 lavishly appointed rooms and suites are no less cossetting for that.
The medical expertise and impressive array of state-of-the-art tech to hand, formulate an extremely detailed guest health profile, which is then used to craft individually tailored therapies. This might involve the workout movement lab in the former ballroom (surely one of the fanciest gyms anywhere), stress management, gut-brain rebalancing, or availing oneself of the numerous aesthetic options from Botox to oxygen therapy and chemical peels.
Michelin-starred resident chef Heinz Beck delves deep into the scientific underpinnings of nutrition. He authors academic papers on the subject, conducting his own extensive research from a kitchen that resembles a mini laboratory.
Underneath Palazzo Fiuggi, a new stylishly conceived 65,000 sq-ft spa and wellness complex is now the beating heart of the property. It draws a new breed of celebrity, more concerned with cryotherapy than the baccarat table. In 2023, Oprah turned up with a coterie of friends and declared it the best wellness spa she’d ever encountered, immediately generating 500 reservation requests in her wake.
Relax
Just being at Palazzo Fiuggi is inherently relaxing. Tones are hushed, the pace subdued, and sleep comes easy. It seems that 2025 marks a repositioning from wellness retreat to wellness spa, with less rigorous programmes sitting alongside the established ones.
It is, therefore, perfectly possible to spend each day being gently pummelled and pampered into a simpering lump of semi-comatose steak tartare, should you so desire. From being slid around like a big bar of soap on a hot slab in the hammam, to wrapped up in mud and left on a waterbed before being hosed down against a wall, to the massage on top of hot gravel culminating with the gonging of sound bowls placed on your abdomen; all bodywork bases are covered. They’re also expertly administered under the aegis of traditional Chinese medicinal practices, with a focus on meridians and pressure points.
Unadulterated indolence, though, might be missing the point. The medical expertise and impressive array of state-of-the-art tech to hand, formulate an extremely detailed guest health profile, which is then used to craft individually tailored therapies. This might involve the workout movement lab in the former ballroom (surely one of the fanciest gyms anywhere), stress management, gut-brain rebalancing, or availing oneself of the numerous aesthetic options from Botox to oxygen therapy and chemical peels. Thalassotherapy for optimum skin health involves floating around in a sequence of mineral-rich pools (à la the Dead Sea) and is encouraged daily.
Afternoons can be whiled away around another semi-Olympic outdoor pool installed in 1929; the property claims to be the first hotel in Europe to have an outdoor pool, while tennis and padel courts are secreted away in the idyllic tranquillity of the hotel’s grounds.
Explore
This gorgeous corner of Lazio, butting up to its neighbour Abruzzo, harbours the best of all worlds. While readily accessible to Rome and its cornucopia of cultural attractions, it also remains ensconced in forested hills that fold away into a timeless beauty. The pressure cooker atmosphere of a city side trip, however, can sit in jarring contrast to the slow simmer of Palazzo Fiuggi’s luxuriating detoxification.
A hike, which the hotel regularly organises, might be a more judicious choice, as would biking, mountain or otherwise, while Palazzo Fiuggi also has an 18-hole golf course, one of Italy’s first. Within an hour of Fiuggi are several exquisite historical hilltop towns, that, while perhaps not as compelling as a visit to the Eternal City, can be absorbed at a much less frenetic pace.
And then there’s Fiuggi itself, renamed from Anticoli in 1910 in a rebranding of its spa-town celebrity, just a stroll away down the hill. If, like me, you enjoy immersing yourself in the day-to-day of such provincial towns, a stroll around Fiuggi makes for a simple yet satisfying change of scene. I can highly recommend propping up the bar at the enticing Gran Caffè Michelangelo as the locals gossip away (probably about you, as they’ll know everything going on up at the big house). They serve croissants filled with a disarmingly delicious homemade pistachio cream to accompany coffee. Or so I was told – obviously, I wouldn’t be succumbing to such temptations.
