Italia! - February 2013

d i s c o v e r i ta l i a !

Holiday for your health

All photos Š Hannah Bellis and Ti Sana spa

After an over-indulgent Christmas, try a detox escape to Italy that won’t add to your waistline. Hannah Bellis signs herself up

44 italia! February 2013

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ast month, I finished reading the novel Eat Pray Love, in which American author Elizabeth Gilbert attempts to heal herself from the heartbreak and sadness of a marriage breakdown by eating her way around Italy, rediscovering her happiness and gaining two stone along the way. This was not the perfect choice of reading material for my trip to 1711 Ti Sana wellness spa, situated in the small village of Arlate between Milan and Bergamo. I was on a raw food retreat, and Elizabeth’s descriptions of gelato and creamy pasta sauces were driving me to distraction.

This is the first time I have visited Italy and not spent time fixating on where and what I am going to eat on my trip for weeks in advance. The food of Italy is not the only reason I visit – in fact, I often pack enough activity and exploration in to my trips to more or less justify the extra calories – but it’s the evening meals, pastries, coffees and gelato that I remember after a trip, just as much as what I saw and where I visited.

In my first 24 hours at Ti Sana I had consumed a delicious ruby red beetroot, courgette and apple juice for breakfast, a giant salad of raw vegetables and sprouts with a red

I felt clear-headed, wide-awake energised and revived

pepper dressing for lunch and then courgette rolls with olive filling as a starter for my main meal. They then brought out another giant salad of raw vegetables for my main course which I could not face. I felt nauseous and headachy. I had had enough of chewing. Instead I retreated to my wonderfully luxurious bedroom (there can be no better place to feel unwell) and slept for ten hours.

I awoke the next morning feeling much better – in fact, I felt wonderful. It’s this feeling that could convert me to detox, I felt clearheaded, wide-awake (despite not having consumed a jot of caffeine for 48 hours), energised and revived.

So it was that I emerged from the purgatory of the night before and started to fall in love with Ti Sana. ➤

Clockwise from top left: Ti Sana’s wellness spa; Alps seen from Arlate; Michelangelo’s Ferry; exercise class; Ti Sana’s riverstone-clad exterior; the spa’s entrance; Ti Sana’s sunny courtyard; walking along the River Adda; energy lifestyle programme’s vegetarian food; chef Valeria Agnelutto in her kitchen

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d i s c o v e r i ta l i a !

Clockwise from top left: luxury bathrooms complement modernisation; Hannah tries a rebounding class; juice is important in Ti Sana’s detox programmes; colourful raw food lunch; rooms are lit for relaxation; the Adda National Park is an easy walk away; original beams are visible in some rooms; in summer, guests dine in the courtyard

➤ Actually in print, I should give it the full name, at least this once.

It is called 1711 Ti Sana Detox Retreat. The 1711 prefix comes from the stone that owner-operator Erica D’Angelo found during the restoration of the property, built as the servant quarters for nearby Strigelli Villa – the house which now belongs to Erica’s parents. They had been operating the property as a pizzeria and hotel before deciding to undergo the extensive restoration to update the building to the standards required for a luxury spa. During the renovations, they found 1711 carved into the external wall, a benchmark of the wall’s original building date.

They left the carving visible, and incorporated its shape into the spa’s logo. You can see it if you

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walk around the property, located to the right of the spa’s entrance and illuminated at night – none of which can have been in the mind of the stone mason who originally carved it. These historical touches along with the wooden beamed ceilings and thick stone walls keep Ti Sana feeling homely and atmospheric even after renovation.

Arlate is a wonderful village to wake up in – quiet and calm with few cars.

Morning begins at 8.30am with a group walk to the nearby River Adda, just ten minutes away on foot. Walking along the banks of this almost green river that flows all the way into

Milan, with the sun rising on my left and Michelangelo’s Ferry visible in front of me, I decided that this is how I would like to energise myself every morning, rather than the long commute and travel cup of coffee my body usually has to make do with.

A breakfast of juice follows, and I’ve discovered that any juice with beetroot in tastes like boiled sweets, even if it has cabbage in it as well.

The day continues with more energetic exercise classes, meditative exercise like T’ai Chi, and talks and demonstrations. You can also make use of the spa facilities on site, which consist of a very luxurious wellness spa, live and dried blood

I spent several happy hours swimming in their saline caves

more information ➤ Prices start from €1628 per person for four days juice detox in Ti Sana, which welcomes single visitors. Visit their website at www.tisanadetoxretreat.com for offers and promotions throughout the year.

tests where you see your own cells under the microscope and a medical spa for detox procedures of the colonic cleansing variety. If I were an investigative journalist, I would expand, but suffice to say that their Angel of Water system scores points because you are left to do it yourself, and it’s nowhere near as embarrassing as you may think. But I was happier in the wellness spa, swimming in their saline cave, which was warm, salty and full of jacuzzi jets, lit below water to create a vibe of relaxation.

The activity does stop you thinking about hunger, and I don’t think I did feel hungry on my visit.

Every two hours or so someone would bring me a juice, wherever I was in the complex. It’s a strange experience when you are swimming alone

in a saline grotto, feeling totally disassociated from the world and a member of staff appears with a glass of prune juice. “I have your juice, would you like me to help you?”

You can choose to have a juiceonly diet (juice detox), a juice and raw food mix (fresh lifestyle), or a juice and vegetarian food selection (energy lifestyle). Food is grown in Ti Sana’s garden, just a few kilometres away, or occasionally sourced from trusted suppliers.

I say I was not hungry, but I cannot describe my joy when I was given a bowl of couscous while sampling the energy lifestyle programme.

I had missed eating food that did not require endless chewing. As a detox first timer, energy lifestyle made a lot more sense to me, and after four days,

I came away four pounds lighter, with a flatter stomach which lets me wear outfits that haven’t seen the light of day for years.

One month later, I am sitting on a plane about to fly back from four very different days in Rome. My trip has been full of all the things I love about Italy – coffee, pastries, osso bucco, wine, wine and more wine. There is no doubt I’ve had a wonderful time, but I am completely exhausted, and part of me looks back in longing at my flight home from Ti Sana, accompanied by a packed lunch of pumpkin-stuffed cabbage leaves, where I felt slim, refreshed and an altogether healthier and happier version of myself. Isn’t that what a holiday break should really be about?

Well, perhaps at least once a year…n!

getting there ➤ Fly to Milan from many UK airports. If you fly to Milan Bergamo it is a 30-minute taxi ride to Arlate.

You can fly to Milan Malpesa, then take a train to Milan Garibaldi and change there to Olgiate-CalcoBrivio station, which is just a 10-minute cab ride from Ti Sana.

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