Landing in the Italian capital more than 20 years later, I was convinced that things could only get better.
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Our destination this time is Palazzo Fiuggi, a luxury medical wellness retreat about 55 miles southeast of Rome.
Sadly, no pizza.
Built in 1913, Palazzo Fiuggi began life as a favorite destination for European aristocrats and Italian royalty.
Over the next few decades, it helped attract an international jet-set crowd that included Pablo Picasso and Ingrid Bergman.
Since reopening three years ago after an extensive renovation, the multi-award-winning resort has hosted celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, who raved after her visit in early 2023 that it was the best spa experience of her life.
Set in the lush hills of an area famous for its “healing” natural springs since the 1300s, the hotel’s slogan is “Longer Life, Better Living.”
The hotel provided a driver and we arrived just in time for lunch.
Food is one of Palazzo Fiuggi’s specialties.
The “food is medicine” philosophy was developed by three-star Michelin chef Heinz Beck, who runs Rome’s renowned La Pergola restaurant and oversees the Palazzo’s cuisine.
There is no red meat, alcohol, added sugar or coffee served (though English breakfast tea is available).
Each guest has a customized meal plan ranging from about 1,200 to 2,500 calories per day depending on their goals, from weight loss or “detoxing” to muscle building.
I ordered the Blue Menu (1,900 calories a day) but at my own request no meat (the hotel does serve chicken).
Breakfast, lunch and dinner are served in the Quattro Continenti dining room, a former grand ballroom with chandeliers and frescoed ceilings, although the dress code is casual.
Every morning you’re given a menu detailing the day’s set menu: a three-course lunch, a four-course dinner, a surprisingly hearty breakfast, and two snacks (usually a fresh smoothie and a little fruit), all washed down with water or sparkling water and herbal teas.
Formulated for an optimal balance of protein, fiber, antioxidants and fatty acids.
I was amazed at how much food you could get for 1,900 calories, and how much flavor was packed into these Masterchef-style small plates.
The food was excellent – we never left hungry, but we also didn’t feel uncomfortably full.
I thoroughly enjoyed everything from sea bream carpaccio with peaches to tortellini stuffed with herbed ricotta in tomato consommé to calamari stuffed with wilted spinach.
Breakfast included porridge sweetened with honey, egg white omelette, poached eggs over avocado tartare and even mini blueberry muffins (naturally sweetened with fruit).
Beyond the food, Palazzo Fiuggi also has an extensive spa where you can get everything from blood tests and Botox to bone density scans and lymphatic drainage massages.
This is where the wealthy from around the world gather to be poked, prodded and pampered.
During their stay, guests came from Germany, France, the UK, as well as Japan, India, the Middle East and the US.
This is where I headed to get my first of two body scans.
For my first 3D body scan, I stood on a plinth in a bikini and rotated 360 degrees while a connected computer generated a digital model of my physique, taking detailed measurements of my exact girth, everything from my calves to my neck.
The second is bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), which uses a weak electrical current passed through the body to estimate the composition of water, fat and other minerals.
Both tests also estimate your metabolic rate (how many calories you burn per day).
Oddly, the 3D scan showed my body fat to be around 19% (“athlete” level), but the BIA showed it to be 27%, so I’m not sure how much to take from the scan, but I can confirm that everything is within “normal” parameters.
If you really want to, and would like to have a full body ‘MOT’, there are an almost endless number of medical tests to choose from.
The biggest attraction for me was the relaxation facilities.
There were three pools, from a large heated indoor pool that you could swim in through a tunnel to an outdoor heated pool overlooking the town of Fiuggi and the hills.
The outdoor pool also comes with a large jacuzzi.
The third pool, a huge, cool rectangular “Panorama Pool,” is set in the gardens among trees and sun loungers, plus daybeds set in a glass-enclosed terrace.
Everywhere we went there were plenty of free loungers with clean towels and Fiuggi mineral water.
This wasn’t the kind of place where you had to worry about putting a towel down at 6am.
Most of the time I was alone.
The adjacent Roman spa allows you to explore the various rooms at your leisure.
Coming down from the indoor pool, the first thing you see are the twin plunge pools of hot and cold water that form the Kneipp.
Sebastian Kneipp, a 19th-century Bavarian-German priest and pioneer of hydrotherapy (the idea that exposing people to water of different temperatures and pressures can have healing effects), believed that all disease originated in the circulatory system, and that alternating between hot and cold baths would stimulate blood flow and improve health.
I put my skepticism about pseudoscience aside and gave it a try.
We recommend you first wade through the waist-deep warm pool, then the cold pool, and do 10 laps.
It was stiflingly cold at first, but by the fifth round it became quite pleasant, leaving a pleasant tingling sensation in my legs.
At the back of the Roman spa are separate women’s and men’s spa lounges, each with its own sauna, steam room and cold plunge pool, with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the gardens.
There is also an infrared sauna.
There is some evidence that infrared light exposure can increase blood circulation and speed up muscle repair.
For me, the warming effect on my back and neck seemed to ease any slight tension and discomfort that might have lingered after the blissful aromatherapy massage I’d had earlier in the day.
Palazzo Fiuggi also has a Thalasso Spa, which can be booked for an hour every day and can accommodate up to four people at a time (although most of the time I was alone).
Thalassotherapy uses seawater and marine minerals (mud, seaweed) as a form of treatment.
Thalasso Spa #Palazzo Fiuggi #Italy pic.twitter.com/4BU2CbRdCN
— Helen McArdle (@HMcArdleHT) June 21, 2024
Guests are given a shower cap and an inflatable neck pillow and are then invited to lie down and float in each of two large heated pools: one is rich in magnesium, creating Dead Sea-like buoyancy, and the other is a saltwater pool.
After 12 minutes of soaking in each, we’re invited to jump into (another) ice-cold pool – this time so cold that I sound more like Sergeant Howie being dragged into the Wicker Man than someone enjoying some supreme relaxation.
I lasted about 10 seconds.
Beyond the luxury of the resort itself, which also features a cinema room and a state-of-the-art gym, one of the must-do things when visiting Fiuggi is a morning hike.
The hotel offers a “Hiking for Longevity” program where guests can take part in a variety of guided hikes each day, but it is also possible to book “a la carte” if you prefer a one-off trip.
They also provide walking boots and poles for the underprepared amateur like me.
On the third day of our stay, myself and two other guests (a TV producer from Paris who was staying at the Palazzo to de-stress, and a 26-year-old Greek woman from London who had visited after eight years of recuperating from chronic fatigue) were picked up outside our hotel at 8am and whisked off for a 45-minute ride through the mountains to our departure point.
The fresh air, sunshine and scenery in Italy in June has got to be one of the best natural tonics.
We walked for over three hours through the picturesque valley with two patient and helpful Italian guides.
This is a moderately paced, moderately difficult hike that can be enjoyed by anyone of moderate fitness.
We returned in time for lunch, with another afternoon of luxurious rest ahead of us.
Would living like this every day really help me live longer? Who knows. But I’d love to try.
Helen McArdle was a guest on Palazzo Fiuggi’s taster programme, which is available for four nights with prices starting from £3,189 per person based on two sharing, and includes all accommodation, meals, drinks and treatments included in the programme.
