Spots in Vason

The Spa at Hotel Montana

This is a simple spot, part of the hotel complex, in which you can relax. The spa experience is often considered an integral part of a ski vacation. It is a place to heat up and cool down. We indulged in this experience even without skiing, and it was glorious. If you are not familiar with Italian spas, they might seem somewhat inaccessible at first. First encountering some of the strange terminology such as the concept of a ‘doccia emozionale’ (literally, emotional shower) might leave you perplexed…and laughing. Me too. But now, I am now on board with the emotional showers, the bucket dump and the percorso caldo/freddo (a progression in which you alternate between immersion in hot and cold water). The spa at Hotel Montana offers all of these strange delights and more, that is, incredible views of the Brenta Dolomites. The ‘emotional showers’ are equipped with different colored lights, water temperatures, and pleasant smells, creating a multi sensorial experience. (In fact a better translation might be ‘sensory shower’?)

The hotel’s website further explains the specific saunas and relaxation rooms they have in technical detail. For example, they “suggest you start with the gentle hammam, a 40°C steam bath perfumed with balsamic essences which have a beneficial effect on the entire respiratory system.” There is science to back up the use of these therapies, of course, and a lot of them are taken from the Scandinavian, and in particular Finnish, culture. At this spa, there are two Finnish saunas, one that reaches 60°C and one that reaches 90°C. They also describe the ‘Finnish bucket — a thermal shock which gives your vessels a little workout as it makes them alternate between vasodilation and vasoconstriction.’

I got on board with the science behind the ‘Finnish Bucket’ but this was a Sala Relax (relaxation room) filled with hay, a specific particularity of this spa…

I scoffed a bit upon first encountering the jargon of the Italian spa experience, but after ‘leaning in’ and reaching a point of total relaxation with mountain views to boot, I am a convert.

Strada di Vason

Here we took a rejuvenating walk, breathing in the mountain air, crossing an incredible pedestrian bridge and on to discover two isolated plastic chairs, just beckoning for company. Again, I could reference Percy Shelley and the concept of the sublime that is so aptly applied to the imposing front of Mont Blanc, explained in the Aosta posts, but here I want to focus on the softer side of the Alpine experience. Many of the British Romantics and American Transcendentalists that followed the Romantics and also found a spirituality in nature. Ralph Waldo Emerson published an essay called Nature in 1836; in this essay, Emerson explains that to experience the wholeness with nature for which we are naturally suited, we must be separate from the flaws and distractions imposed on us by society.

In one of my favorite quotations, Emerson asserts, “the lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood.” I was able to humanize or personalize this quotation for the first time during my experience in Vason, encircled by the Dolomites. Specifically, I felt the moment of ‘adjustment’ Emerson references on a walk away from our hotel.

What felt very special about this walk was that we did not know exactly where we were going. It was not a hike, which of course, brings another type of magic. This did not involve a set path or itinerary, no goal to achieve. We simply set out on the Strada di Vason and kept walking. It was a mountain ramble, and I felt the ‘spirit of infancy’ as well. I had the impetus to play, to cartwheel, to perform some yoga poses in the snow. Perhaps, I cannot render the spirituality of this experience in words, but I encourage you to visit this region and experience for yourself.

Upon reaching a clearing, a few kilometers from our hotel, we ‘spotted’ these two unassuming chairs, facing the mountains, waiting for the company of strangers throughout the day.

Restaurants in Vason