Palazzo Fuiggi Medical Retreat Review— Italy
In 2013 I read an article in Vogue called Destination Detox: Austria’s Viva Mayr Clinic. Since then it has been my dream to go on a medical retreat and after 10 years of dreaming and the financial means to make it happen, at the end of 2023 I found myself researching medical retreats to go to.
With the Sunday Times UK article ‘’20 best medical spas around the world’’ as my guide, I embarked on hours of research looking into each recommendation and carefully verifying reviews across multiple sites before picking my preferred medical spa retreat destination: Palazzo Fuiggi in Italy.
Selecting was hard, but I narrowed it down to Palazzo Fuiggi based on the following: Duration from Home: 1.5-hour flight + 1 hour transfer, and the food menu is designed by Heinz Beck, a Michelin star chef my husband and I like. The price point had me going back and forth a few times as it was quite the investment.
Originally I had planned to go alone, but given the timing my husband decided he could join, so we booked ourselves in for a New Year, New us experience, myself on the Regenerate program, and the Get Fit program was recommended for my husband. We could only stay 5 nights, and after a few emails back and forth with the reservations office (who always managed to spell part of my name wrong) we were informed that the 7 day Regenerate program could be pushed into 5 days and my husbands 3 day Get Fit program could be stretched over 5 and golf could be included for him. Reservations were very accommodating when it came to room selection and preferences, we are used to staying in suites when we travel so this was organized and our transfer was easily sorted as well, however, the pickup time was incorrect in the confirmation email which I thankfully spotted.
Coincidentally a few nights before our trip, my husband stumbled across a TV7 Program about luxury travel (in Swedish) and asked, is this if this is where we were going?
With Christmas and New Year celebrations over and done with, our travel day finally arrived. We landed in Rome where our chauffeur met us and took us to Fuiggi. Fuiggi is famous for its water and is only one hour away from Rome. Palazzo Fuiggi sits atop a hill in all her majestical grandeur between new and old fuiggi. What a splendid building, with fresco delicately at the very top of its exterior.
DAY 1
Upon arrival we stopped at a large gate and then drove up the winding hill that takes you up the hotel, unfortunately despite being a 5-star hotel, no doorman greets you upon arrival, so our driver struggled to open doors for us whilst pushing through our luggage through the door.
At reception, we were met with friendly faces, who swiftly checked us in and showed us our room, which was a lovely suite overlooking the town. A quick room tour followed as we were shown all the features of our room, including black-out shutters, a bathroom as big as some apartments, a pillow menu, a loose tea selection, water galore, and a wall-in wardrobe. Our attention was then drawn to two envelopes one each containing a detailed timetable of where we should be and at what time for the rest of the day. We were then told to settle in quickly and go back down to reception.
However within a few minutes of the receptionist's departure the door rings, with room service lunch, our first culinary treat, a light mixed greens salad with goji berries followed by a mixed coloured quinoa salad with some vegetables. We were pretty hungry as it was already 14:30 so that was greatly appreciated. We ate quickly, as I was quite stressed that we were already late for our hotel tour and program induction. I hate being late and somehow I had forgotten I was in Italy. We head back down to reception where are shown the hotel facilities, including a high-tech gym in a glorious former ballroom, a cinema room and a beautiful dining room. We are then ushered down to -1 spa level where we are met by the wellness concierge Claudia, who walked us through an extensive 6000 sqm of spa, including heated pools, Hamman, sauna, Kneipp, salt room, thalassic pools, solarium, treatment rooms, medical consultations rooms, and a view of the outdoor tennis and padel courts.
With the tour complete, Claudia requested to add us to WhatsApp so we could communicate easily during our stay, unfortunately, response time to the WhatsApp message was over 2 hours, and going down to the Spa reception was much more convenient.
We were then left in the Spa reception to begin our medical programs, my husband was called in first, and I simply followed him, but was stopped by the nurse who told me the rooms were too small and she’d call me next.
So I waited for 20 minutes during which I heard several yelps and finally a loud ‘help’ coming from the thalasso pool. Thalasso therapy pools have a high saline level which means buoyancy also makes it incredibly difficult to put down your legs to get up and out; an older gentleman was left alone in the pools and couldn't get out, it was quite traumatising to see several spa team members rush into the pool area to assist him, especially given that elderly should never be left in pools unsupervised and he shouted for a while before I drew their attention to him. It screamed unprofessionalism!
Shortly after my husband emerged and I went in with the nurses who took some blood, my weight, an EGC and a 3D body scan (which you can do on your phone with an app called me three sixty). During this process, the two nurses rudely spoke to each other and giggled about something in Italian that made me feel uncomfortable. When I asked about the results, the nurse informed me that all reports would be provided at the end of my stay. At this point, I was quite confused as to why would they wait until the END of my stay to show me results when they had a week to help me improve, but I did not question it since the nurse already seemed quite unimpressed with me earlier.
After this, it was straight in with the doctor who did a verbal consultation about my general health and mumbled through my program without really explaining much unless I asked for further details. I was offered the prescription of one coffee a day given my lower blood pressure which I refused, and was asked if I would like to follow the same food program as my husband instead of the one on my program so we’d be eating the same, which I accepted. The 1200 cal diet, oh yaj, I was banking on a Heinz Beck experience at this point to keep my meals light but still tastefully amusing. Leaving the doctor's office the doctor made quite an odd joke for someone you don't know so well. He tapped me on the shoulder and said ‘’just joking sinora’’… and off I went.
Finally it's snack time, so to the bar we go, 1/4 of a glass of cold press apple, lime, and celery. Reality had started to sink in that snacks are not our typical kind of snacks but we have done juice cleanses before so we remained open-minded.
My final appointment of the day was a Biomechanical examination with a gent named Luca. This turned out to be one of my favorite sessions during my stay. Luca stood me on a machine that observed my pedology and balance and a detailed graphic appeared on his screen which he went through in quite a lot of detail. A physical examination of mobility followed, he immediately noticed lock-ups in my shoulders and hips and finally onto the recording treadmill to observe my walking foot stroke. I was then told that he would personally speak to the personal trainer so that my training would be adjusted to my needs. Perfection and music to my ears.
I quickly ushered myself back up to the room for a refresh and a change of clothes. Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner are all served in the same dining hall, with the rule that you can attend breakfast and lunch in your robe but Dinner is semi-casual attire. After staying at Yasurag in Stockholm mid-last year I have taken a liking to the concept of having people wear the same attire, it creates a sense of visual calm and equality. This was not strict at all like that. But onwards to dinner.
Welcomed into the dining room by the head waiter we were seated at our table which would remain ours for the rest of the stay. Our first dinner was not based on our 1200cal program, but the intro menu was a four-course delight including a light salad, tuna tartare risotto, fish with vegetables, and a mango gelato with fruits. Yum. Dinner was concluded with the offering of a herbal tea. The main waiter was extremely attentive to us, topping up water frequently, and offered the option of a day juice cleanse instead of meals for one of our 5 meal days which we politely refused. It was a real shame that one of the servers left thumbprints on my plate otherwise dining was perfection.
We decided to skip the complimentary movie which was showing in the cinema at 9 pm and headed back to our room for an early night. The turn-down fairies had been busy in our room and our next day schedules had arrived in individually named envelopes. It was at this point that I had a minor panic attack, my schedule was full on. I was suddenly feeling like I was back at the office my day being led by an unforgiving calendar of back-to-back meetings. I was further confused by a treatment that had been booked for me at 850am, with breakfast at 9 am when the breakfast hall closed at 9 am and a personal training session at 10 a. Since working out with a full stomach is never a good idea, I decided I would have breakfast before heading down to the treatments and I went to bed.
DAY 2
I woke up quite rested, ready for day two, I waited in the room for my husband who at the recommendation of the doctor (outside his program) to take blood tests and was told to come down first thing fasted. He came back to the room furiously frustrated as the nurses didn't know what blood test to do and they couldn't get in touch with the doctor after trying for over 20 minutes. So that didn't happen.
In the meantime, I used my morning time to contact the wellness concierge to ask about some extra treatments. I got a reply 3 hours later.
We headed down to breakfast for our first day of 1200cals. Breakfast was unimpressive, Muesli, millet crackers, blueberry jam, and pomegranate juice. It was overly sweet, did not feel healthy, and put me in a bad mood. Further to this, my husband who is allergic to blueberries was also served the jam, which was then replaced with raspberry once we drew their awareness to it.
We went down to the spa, my husband went into his first treatment and I did a BIA test, again with the unfriendly nurses with their fake smiles, Im told to undress and stand on a machine that weighed me and measured my body fat. As the machine works I see digits going up and up and up, but with all the labels in Italian, I had no idea what was what. I was once again told that the doctor would explain. Next up it was my Personal trainer session with the lovely Samwel, who had been debriefed by Luca and had given some great thought to my session. He pushed me just enough.
The snack was juice again, nothing to write home about, A quick shower, and back to the dining hall where we had lunch, a vivid green spinach soup, and some pasta.
Lunch was followed by a short pause in my day and then back to the spa for a welcome Hamman ritual, a scrub followed by a foam wash and rinse. Super warm and very relaxing. After this, I met my husband and we went and tried the Kneipp, which was fun but short-lived as I had to be back at the spa for my next consultation with the nutritionist, Elisabetta. Elisabetta opened her computer and looked at my BIA report, she highlighted my areas of improvement and explained the results. At this point, I had also been doing my own research and realized that BIA should be done completely fasted which I was not. So after running through my diet and letting me know that in the final report, she would be recommending a diet program for me, she informed reception and my BBFs the nurses that I would need to redo the BIA first thing the next day. The wellness concierge was also in reception at this point and asked what was being changed, the nurse commented and said ‘she had breakfast before’ like I had committed a cardinal sin. It was at this point I snapped back. My next session was the thalasso pool which I decided to skip based on the elder man incident and my husband's personal experience of similar effects. Meanwhile, my husband took advantage of the free fitness classes offered as there were no training sessions included in his Get Fit Program, something that surprised us.
Snack was another juice, which smelt a bit like fluxuance according to the husband and dinner was a reinvention of the same ingredients from lunch in different formats making the taste profiles quite uninspiring. With hints of fennel in all dishes, I was starting to wonder if this was their miracle-cleansing ingredient.
I was craving animal protein desperately after this vegan day, was grumpy because of the day's happenings, and had an epic headache. My program was once again delivered to the room I reviewed it quickly, whilst my husband contacted room service about replacement tea mugs. After 30 minutes of waiting nothing arrived, so we put our DND on the door and decided to call it a night at 20:00 in hope of a better day 3
DAY 3
My day kicked off with a repeat BIA test, correctly followed by breakfast this time. Breakfast finally included eggs to my delight yet still accompanied by sugary yogurt and even a small square of cake which I refused to eat. After breakfast, I headed down to the spa for the Three-step hydrotherapy treatment, which was probably the most fun treatment I had, It included a 20-minute aromatherapy massage bath, followed by a lovely mud wrap and then the most hilarious of all the Scottish shower which reminded me of an episode of prison break when they wash down the prisoners upon entry to the jail. Overall a nice treatment. After this I had some free time and then a medical check-in with the doctor before lunch, all was well so that was quick and easy.
Lunch consisted of the famous grilled cauliflower with 20 flavours, which looked pretty but let's be honest it is hard to get excited about a cauliflower steak, this was followed by a chickpea soup which was nothing to write home about.
After lunch I fancied a tea in my room but still no mugs had arrived, we called again and waited but nothing showed up. After lunch and then it was personal trainer time, unfortunately, the trainer had changed but he was still very much aware of my ailments and adopted my session accordingly and included exercises on the reaxing machine which is a board that moves whilst you hold stances. I had to quickly rush to the shower before my aromatherapy massage which was a lovely relaxing way to end the day.
Between this treatment and dinner was the first time I had time to have a nap which is something I never do, but I simply needed some shut eye. Dinner was the same salad we’d had on lunch day 1 followed by a very green soup and finally some chicken which was cooked beautifully.
Thanks to my nap I had a little more energy in the evening and after returning to our room and reviewing our next day's schedule we were able to watch a nice film before heading to sleep.
DAY 4
My breakfast excitement from the day before was short-lived. I had thought that the nutritionist had taken note of my typical breakfast being 1 wholegrain toast and two eggs or one egg and avocado, but once again it was back to sugar galore with Bran Flakes with raspberry flavored kefir, blueberry jam (served to my husband again!) crackers and juice.
After breakfast, I had my appointment with Dr Vikas Gupta, a global ayurvena, nutrition and lifestyle specialist. Before entering my session reception informed me that the metabolic test machine was out of order, given it was a Friday I assumed that this would not be fixed before my departure and I was quite disappointed as this is one test I wanted to do. We had noticed that the hotel had been experiencing electrical surges for the past few days and apparently, this had affected the machine.
With Dr Gupta, I was politely asked several questions, he conducted a physical examination including taking my pulse, etc, and informed me that all was well other than a possible slow metabolism. He focused his consultation on guiding me towards achieving calm of mind, doing what makes me happy with the final advice being to try spending 20 minutes a day, looking at something nice, listening to something nice, and reading something nice; No news, no academia.
This session was a game-changer for me. I went back up to my room spoke to my husband, and told him I was not happy being here and that I wanted to leave earlier. I checked flights and found flights that left a day earlier and booked them.
I then took the reigns of my schedule went to the spa reception and asked for a printout of what was left of my program, struck out everything that I didn't want to do like repeat treatments, and gave it back to reception to reschedule my program with the knowledge that Id be leaving a day earlier. She asked if I'd like to do one of my treatments earlier while she worked on it, so that is what we did. The pressotherapy lymphatic drainage treatment was highly relieving for my legs and my therapist was lovely.
Twenty minutes later I was out of my session and the receptionist had presented me with a program for my final day and had given me some freedom to allow the rest of the day free to enjoy the spa facilities. We had a lovely swim, spent time in the salt room and infrared sauna and I had a lovely nap in the solarium. Ah, wallah happiness returned. Before dinner, we took a stroll of the grounds and the nearby town.
Dinner was fish-based which was quite tasty. Given that my schedule for the next day showed 9 am for breakfast I asked the head waiter if this would be an issue, to which he responded that it was no problem to come til 930. I wish I had known this earlier in my stay.
After dinner, I learned from a fellow guest that other guests were disappointed with the food and had been eating offsite, saying the food was bland and too little. I started to feel like I wasn't the only one who wasn't overly impressed with the place but with that said one doesn't come to a medical retreat expecting to eat hamburgers and fries, maybe the caloric restriction is just too much… maybe some balance is required.
DAY 5 (final day)
Check-out day, kicked off by going straight down to the nurse's room. On the desk sat my file with all my reports, I got undressed jumped onto the bed, took blood, did the BIA again fasted this time, and had their usual little chat in Italian (which I partially understood this time).
I went up for breakfast, an omelet with a side of sugar once again, I ate the omelet and left the rest, and went to my room to break open my reports. Upon doing so I noticed an error in my height which had been impacted by BMI and other factors in the BIA report.
In the meantime, my husband had decided he did not want a facial and the spa receptionist offered him an alternative treatment. He chose the pressotherapy lymphatic drainage treatment which he absolutely loved.
My final medical examination was with a new doctor who was an absolutely lovely human. We reviewed the reports together and I informed him about my height error and concerns about caloric suggestions based on incorrect data. He agreed and informed me we’d have to do the BIA again. I asked him if he was sure given that I had already done one extraordinary BIA test and he said definitely. Upon going to reception and informing the nurse, she snapped at him‘ how much difference’. The doctor told her it was 10cm and I reassured her that this was the last time she’d ever see me as I had it with her as much as she’d clearly had it with me. After the BIA an additional report were added to my file with the correct data, I was taken into my final massage a sports massage with the Pawlu. Pawlu is a rare kind of therapist with excellent technic and energy. Maybe too strong for some but I loved it, he did not leave a knot in my body and the last time I had this kind of massage was about 12 years ago at The Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland by a therapist named Anna who treated rugby athletes. This was equally memorable and I felt positively invigorated after the treatment.
And so that was it, all treatments done and dusted we collected our luggage and headed to reception to check out and have lunch before our car arrived. However, at reception, we were presented two invoices to settle one for a treatment I had requested the price of but never took and another for the pressotherapy lymphatic drainage treatment my husband was offered. Keep in mind that I scrapped 4 treatments off my program and a night of accommodation as well as not being able to do the metabolic test and they were asking us to pay more. It took them 25 minutes to sort that out at which point we had no time for lunch and decided to just leave.
Conclusion:
An experience for us both that left us with a changed mindset, mostly about what we spend money on, joking aside, for myself, I lost 2 kilos less than what I lost during my 5 day raw juice cleanse I’d done with RAW during the say, the reconfirmed awareness that I need to lose 12kgs and being more assertive about happiness and finding calm in my mind.
Location and facilities: 4/5
Beautiful hotel, location, grounds, and spa whilst not the best I've been to definitely in the top 5.
Medical retreat: 2/5
Tests executed were nothing special and overpriced.
Massage and water-related treatments: 4/5
The massage team were all excellent.
Fitness related treatments: 4/5
Highly competent team
Staff & Professionalism: 3/5
This is hard to say because some of the staff were exceptional (massage/sports/dining) but some of the team were not trained to manage a specific kind of clientele and lacked client-facing communication skills.
Food: 3/5
I have no complaints about calorie restrictions or the no coffee or alcohol but the food lacked variance, much of the same, and got boring after a few days. Alpiana Green Luxury in South Tyrol offers a much better menu for foodies.
Regenerate program: 3/5
A good taster of what's on offer but unnecessary repetition in places.
Get Fit program: 1/5
Lacked elements of physical activity in the program for example included treatments like facials instead of PT sessions and psammo therapy and aromatherapy instead of sports massages.
