WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE SUMMER 2017

“It must be the demons day off, as the only souls
I see are figures in white hooded robes, kicking
back in deck chairs and sweating for their sins.”
grotto, home to a 130 million-year-old
mineral-rich spring, in 1849 near the
villa of Italian poet Giuseppe Giusti.
Shortly afterwards, the entrepreneurial
wordsmith converted his estate into a
spa and hotel. When the 19th century
composer Giuseppe Verdi gave the
grotto a big thumbs up, dubbing it “the
eighth wonder of the world,” it’s reputation
was made.
Today, the enterprise encompasses
a 64-room hotel, which debuted a 15
million Euro refurbishment this spring.
The revamp revealed refreshed guestrooms
and a lighter, airier restaurant
and piano bar, without sacrificing the
villa’s original frescoes and selection of
period antiques. Two outdoor thermal
pools feature hydro-massage jets,
where guests bob like poached eggs,
and an expansive spa offers everything
Guests relax in Grotta Giusti’s steamy
grotto, which is heated by a thermal spring.
Courtesy Grotta Giusti, Italian Hospitality
Collection.
Opposite: Grotta Giusti spa is located within
an elaborate stone building erected in the
mid-19th century, shortly after the thermal
grotto was discovered. Copyright Amy
Laughinghouse.
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