Blissed Out -- Spas Around the World

“We’re done.  Take your time getting up.”  Anyone who’s enjoyed the luxury of a spa treatment has probably heard these words gently murmured by the aesthetician at the end of a session.  Massages, facials, mud wraps, and other offerings cleanse, exfoliate, beautify, and rejuvenate our weary bodies.  The added  benefit of these treatments, when experienced in other corners of the world, is an opportunity to be a part of another culture’s practices and social customs.  It’s a true snapshot of what locals value and enjoy.  Though I’ve yet to indulge in the hamams of Turkey or a Japanese onsen, one day spent at a thermal spring spa in Italy left me enamored with the concept of being a “spa sociologist” as a means of learning about the people of the area which I’m visiting, all while enjoying exotic treatments and pampering rituals.

The town of Viterbo, about an hour north of Rome, has been known as a spa town since early popes began visiting due to the healing properties of the thermal springs, hence the spa’s name Terme dei Papi.  An outdoor pool surrounded by palm trees and lounge chairs attracts locals, some of whom visit daily.  The entire complex, however, includes a medical facility, grotta (underground thermal water caves), and myriad treatment rooms.  I opt to start with a volcanic Italian mud facial.  My aesthetician, Maria Theresa, speaks little English.  The barrier magnifies my sense of touch and provides an extra layer of serenity since I don’t worry about carrying on a conversation.  Some things in this world are universal, which I discover as Maria Theresa makes her way through the steps of my facial by indicating, murmuring, gently guiding.  Harvested nearby, the mud’s minerals and other nutrients enrich my skin and leave it feeling exquisitely soft.

I move on to the grotta, consisting of  several rooms with hot sulfur water dripping into pools surrounded by wooden benches built into the rock.  Sunlight makes its way to the bottom in some areas but is supplemented by lights that illuminate the textures of hot water as it glides over the porous rock. The grotta reminds me of a sauna or steam room except its rustic construction reminds me it's built around these waters which spring forth from the earth.  As I exit, a sturdy, serious woman guides me to a darkened relaxation room.  Unsure of what she has planned and unable to ask due to my lack of Italian language prowess, I decide to succumb.  She lays me on a bed and wraps me first in towels and then plastic.  She leaves me, and I close my eyes.  There may have been serenity music playing softly in the background, but all I can hear, indeed all I can feel, is the pounding of my heart in my chest and then resonating throughout my entire body.  This blissful state deepens, and I enjoy the feeling of being in a place where I surrender to practices new and unfamiliar.  

The final step is a relaxing soak in the outdoor pool.  The water, already warmed from the earth, receives reinforcement from the sun’s rays, and small wispy flakes of sulfur float around me and my fellow soakers.  An elderly Italian woman cups her hands under the spout and earnestly rubs the water into her skin.  The woman’s faith in this water’s healing abilities reinforces my own sense of robust health when I finally, wistfully, leave the Terme dei Papi at the end of the day.  It is that same day that I begin to dream of a new place for my next spa adventure.