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muscles totally relax and absorb these patients to go to hell, at least they don’t usti is the only hotel in the world where
minerals into the bones. It stimulates have to pay full price for the privilege. you can scuba dive in a thermal cave
the production of endorphins, which is system, but as I’ve always been keen
why you feel so relaxed. It’s like a drug.” Visitors can also enjoy full immersion on breathing oxygen that doesn’t come
therapy – a baptism, if you like – in the from a can, I opt instead for “floatation
In fact, it’s so much like a drug that the Lago del Limbo, the crystal clear, 93-de- therapy” in the lake with Luciano Tanini,
Italian government subsidizes citizens’ gree lake that stretches out beneath the who has been exploring these caves
visits here. So when a doctor tells their cavern’s cathedral-like arches. Grotta Gi- since 1980.
Cradling me in his arms, Luciano
stretches and bends my limbs as he
moves me gently through the balmy
water. Swaying like seaweed, entrust-
ing myself to the strong hands of a
stranger, I’m as carefree as flotsam
and jetsam on an infinite ocean.
You might even say that I’m as happy
as a pig in mud…but just what is it
about mud that’s supposed to induce
such euphoria? That’s what I aim to
find out when I travel 28 miles west to
Bagni di Pisa, which places a spe-
cial emphasis on fangotherapy. (It’s
nothing to do with vampires. That’s
spa-speak for detoxifying, anti-in-
flammatory treatments using hot clay
steeped in thermal waters).
Grotta Giusti’s 64-room hotel is set within
a 19th century villa in Monsummano Terme,
Tuscany. Copyright Amy Laughinghouse.
Left: A woman tests the warm thermal wa-
ters in the Hammam dei Granduchi at Bagni
di Pisa spa resort in Tuscany. The hammam
is built into an intimate natural grotto. Cour-
tesy Bagni di Pisa, Italian Hospitality Collec-
tion.
Opposite: Grotta Giusti in Italy’s Monsum-
mano Terme is the only hotel in the world
offering diving in a thermal cave system.
Courtesy Grotta Giusti, Italian Hospitality
Collection.
WINEDINEANDTRAVEL.COM 149
