Now this is one of the most unusual spas I’ve ever visited – and there have been a few. Is it the setting? Well, that certainly helps. Surrounded by softly rounded mountains, forest and meadows, this is the aptly named Vale of Silence. There are just two hotels, few people come (it’s very little known in the tourist world) and there are no day trippers. It really is very, very peaceful. So, all of this helps.
There is, however, rather more to it than that. Luesnerhof has a coherence you rarely find. It has an underlying philosophy of “naturellness” which extends from its architecture and interior design to its spa treatments and rituals, the like of which I’ve rarely seen. What exactly, though, is “naturellness”? In terms of the setting, you are, of course, in the very midst of a glorious natural landscape. The buildings themselves, though, are also quite literally taken out of that landscape and the materials – stone pine and larch wood, stone and marble, even the local clay is turned into plaster for the walls – used to recreate a seemingly traditional mountain house.
In fact, these buildings are not very old at all by South Tyrol standards. The first was built in 1981 and expansion and renovation continue to this day. The expansion is not, however, in terms of increasing guest numbers (there are 55 rooms in all) but in the creation of more spa and relaxation space. Even at maximum capacity, this is not a place that will ever feel crowded.
Some of the most recent extensions include a second Bath House (more on this later) and a perfectly circular yoga shala with jaw-dropping views. It’s not just yoga in the shala either. There are Qigong, meditation, sound therapy, healing and breath techniques in the Mindfulness Programme. 
And don’t for a moment imagine the last of these is simply counting your breaths while seated in a position as close to a lotus as you can get. One class is called Psychedelic Breath and is accompanied by electronic beats all of which leads to a deeply meditative state with a simultaneous creative state of awareness (not for the faint hearted, either, or, come to that people with high blood pressure).
Then there is the Sweat Lodge Ritual (the lodge itself is in the forest) that takes you to the “womb of Mother Earth” in a purification process where you sweat in the heat for four rounds, with breaks for fresh air and water, accompanied by a shaman and her drum beats, chants and stories.
Of course, there are other more conventional classes and spa treatments. There’s an extensive gym with a climbing wall, numerous massages and facials. There are fire places everywhere (including in the rooms) and water is at the heart of the spa, too, with indoor and outdoor pools, hydrotherapy and a natural pool of fresh spring water from the Luson Alp, complete with waterlilies. There are more than ten varieties of sauna and steam including, unusually, a traditional hamam, a sauna for hikers with combined foot soak and a salt water grotto, the latter part of the ritual in the alpine bathhouse.
The ritual follows three steps over the course of a couple of hours. You start in the Swiss stone pine sauna (45C) where the slowly rising humidity allows you to sweat gently while inhaling the stone pine scent. Lungs, skin and joints thus prepared, you move on to the salt water grotto where you float in 35C water surrounded by natural rock, the salt detoxifying and regenerating the skin (and total relaxation guaranteed – nothing so relaxing as flotation!). Step Three is relaxing on infrared chairs while inhaling pine essence or just lounging on the top floor and enjoying a panoramic view down the valley.
The idea of nature is clearly intrinsic to the outdoor treatments. There’s a Forest Bathing Promenade with a saltwater pavilion, a forest sauna and Kneipp waterfall, loungers dotted through the woods alongside infrared saunas, all leading to a rather spectacular view of the mountains. Hikes feature regularly on the summer activity programme while, in the winter, though you can go skiing (it’s around a 20minute drive to the nearest slopes), at Luesnerhof they favour snowshoe expeditions.
You could spend your entire time out of doors – and it is a very alluring idea – but I wanted to explore the treatments, too, and while tempted by the alpine hay bath, the cellular recreation treatment and the honey massage (I’ll just have to come back) I went for something quite unique. Kornelia Schwitzer is a therapist with some 25 years of experience. She was, as she explained to me, drawn to the local mineral, silver quartzite, as a healing tool and combined this with the natural healing knowledge of the mountain dwellers – who use wild herbs such as St John’s wort and yarrow – to create a ritual of great depth and intensity.
It is, though, one that’s very hard to explain. Let me give you some of the basics. It lasts two hours (at least) and takes place on the top floor of the Bath House (you have it completely to yourself). There are numerous local ingredients in various forms: larch and juniper, oils and inhalations, silver quartzite (“it heals and activates”) as a stone and a powder, yarrow, borage and lavender, resins and plants smouldering on charcoal. There is plenty of oil involved but this is no conventional massage and Kornelia applies it to the skin so slowly that your mind is focused on perceiving whether there’s any movement happening at all.
And this really is the point. Because this is not a massage aimed at relieving your back pain (though it’s entirely possible that it might), rather the aim here is energetic healing, shedding mental and emotional pain, restoring balance and the connection between mind and body, calming the nervous system and slowing down everything – from your heart beat to your brainwaves. By the end, my body felt weighed down (as in ultimately grounded) while my senses were super-acute. It was, all in all, an intense, immersive, remarkable experience.
I could say the same for my entire, all too short, stay at Luesnerhof. Highly recommended.
Naturhotel Lüsnerhof is a member of the Belvita group of hotels. For more information, please visit www.belvita.it. It’s an easy hour’s drive from Bolzano airport – flights from London Gatwick with SkyAlps.
Kornelia is bringing her Silver Quartzite Ritual and Psychedelic Breathing to London this September. There are two breathing workshops in Primrose Hill (27 September) and Richmond (26 September) and you can book these or a 3-hour ritual with her in Richmond on 27 or 28 September. For more information, and for bookings, please visit www.korneliaschwitzer.com.
