Health & Wellness
VACATION Rx IN THE WELLNESS VALLEY By Tara Nolan
Emilia-Romagna’s Wellness Valley encourages active travel.
FAENZA ©CRISTINA MERLONI
“How old are you and what do you do for fitness?” asks the young personal trainer as we jog down the steps into the garden at our hotel. I decide it’s not a rude question and answer – he simply does not want me to expire on the grounds of the hotel. But here I am, doing squats and lunges, steps from the Adriatic Sea, in an area in Emilia-Romagna, a region of Northern Italy, called Wellness Valley. The concept, which was founded in 2002 by Nerio Alessandri, also founder of fitness equipment giant Technogym, was conceived to encourage the area’s citizens to live a healthy lifestyle. This “wellness ecosystem” encourages exercise, a healthy diet and mental well-being, and extends right down to urban infrastructure and planning. The Wellness Valley brand recently expanded to include tourism, packaging up ideas and routes for wellness, exercise and sport for those who want to visit the region. My early-morning sweat-fest is a service offered by my hotel, like others in the area. In this case, going on vacation doesn’t have to mean you give up your weekly Pilates classes. The classes can come to you.
28 • Vacations ® • Spring 2020
PREDAPPIO ©CRISTINA MERLONI
