PremiaTerme - Natural Thermal Spa

When you’ve had enough of winter, when you’re chilled right through to your bones, when even the thought of spring skiing in the sunshine still seems too cold, there is a remedy. Take a day trip to PremiaTerme, a just opened, full-service spa, located about 45 minutes north of Stresa in Cadarese, in the beautiful Valle Antigorio. The pools are fed from hyperthermal natural hot springs, which can enter the pool at 42 degrees Centigrade (107 degrees Farenheit). Premia offers some services that are not all that common in the US, and I can’t wait to try them. For example, in the ‘dry’ area there is the familiar ‘Finlandish’ sauna, but there is also a biosauna, and then there is the Bagno di Fieno, Bath of Hay, in which one rests on bales of hay, so that with the intense heat the body absorbs the many beneficial natural byproducts the hay gives off in the humidity.

To cool down after your sauna, how about a Tropical Shower, in which the misty rain of a tropical forest is reproduced, or, the Fountain of Ice, which produces a gentle snowfall! This is to give you the sensation of running from a hot Jacuzzi into snow to cool down. I’ve done that… And love it… but I want to try this!

In the ‘wet’ area there is the standard Turkish bath, but also a Bath of Herbs, in which each 15 minutes different herbs are pumped into the air, for a varying sense of different essences and perfumes. And here, to cool down, take your choice of the Doccia Gigante Soffione, which consists of large pipes of powerful water, the Doccia a Secchio Cascata, which dumps a bucket of water onto you all at once, or the Doccia Scozzese, which massages you with alternating jets of hot and cold water. This sounds like a water park for adults!

When you’re so relaxed that you don’t want to move, go and rest a bit in the Chromoterapia, the light-therapy room. I’ll tell you how PremioTerme describes this:

The cromoterapia consists of a bath of colors, for relaxation and the recuperation of your power. The pure colored lights, in the four colors of the spectrum, allow a recuperation without comparison, in some, a deep sleep.

PremiaTerme was not open the last time I was in Stresa, and so I haven’t been there yet, but I can’t wait to try it.

The entrance fees are very reasonable; they range from 6 euro/person for a two-hour admittance, to 15 euro/person for all day. Children’s rates are from 2 to 8 euro, and there are other packages as well. The spa is easy to reach by car. Only 45 minutes north of Stresa, it is also close enough to many of the Swiss ski resorts to combine it with a visit there. What a great break from winter this would be. By the next day I’d be so ready to hit those slopes again.

PremiaTerme Web site: www.premiaterme.com

Hours: Sunday through Thursday, 10 to 19.30.

Friday and Saturday 10 to 21.

Phone: 0324 617211

On a GPS system you’d want to search for Strada 659 in Cadarese, where the spa is very visible from the road.

(photo from PremiaTerme Web site)