Surrounded by sprawling natural landscapes, the Grotta Giusti hotel is a delightful 19th century villa. The rooms, 58 double rooms and 6 junior suites, feature refined interiors, beautifully decorated with restored frescoes, antique furniture, and inspired design, such as marble baths filled with natural spring water. Guests are offered hotel-wide internet access, a business centre, and several small conference rooms. Sala Giusti, the hotel’s central hall, is topped with a magnificent, painted ceiling, a suitable spot for relaxing and chatting with friends, piano music playing around you.
Each zone naturally maintains its own temperature, ranging from 28° to 34 °C. The grotto’s atmospheric pressure is constant and doesn’t differ from that of its surrounding location. Natural mechanisms that science has yet to explain manage to keep the grotto comfortable at any time of day or year. Humidity can approach 100%, causing water, enriched with minerals, to seep through the walls before the natural underground heat causes it to evaporate. The warm steam improves respiratory conditions, blood circulation, and gynecological, muscu- loskeletal, nerve, and dermatological disorders.
As for spa treatments, the hotel offers a wide range of options, from wellness to aesthetic procedures. Such is the philosophy behind Grotta Giusti and the rest of the Italian Hospitality Collection, which also includes SPA Bagni di Pisa (San Giuliano Terme, Tuscany), Fonteverde (San Casciano dei Bagni, Tuscany), and Chia Laguna (Sardinia). The hotel operates according to the meaning behind SPA — salus per aquam, or «health by water.»
When speaking of Italy, of course, it’s impossible to avoid the matter of cuisine. Accordingly, another must at the hotel is its restaurant, La Veranda, where guests can revel in Chef Gianluca Braglia’s culinary masterpieces that combine both originality and tradition. Follow up your meal at the Il Poeta bar, serving up classic and signature cocktails, snacks and desserts, and also juices and herbal teas. Il Poeta manager and bartender Francesco Iglio was awarded the John White Award, the highest honour for bartenders, in 2007.
Directly accessible along the hotel’s corridor is the ultra-modern wellness centre, complete with baths and an eastern medicine depart- ment, as well as a gym, numerous recreation areas, and a beauty salon. Guests can also use the surrounding area’s tennis court and hiking trails. Golfers will enjoy that, just 5 kilometers away, at the foot of the Monsummano Hills, is the La Vecchia Pievaccia golf club, offering hotel guests special discounts.
In 2010, Grotta Giusti won the prestigious Spa Finer 2010 Reader’s Choice Award, ranking among the top 10 hot springs hotels, thanks to the healing properties of the area’s waters. In 2015, the hotel’s thermal grotto again received significant recognition, named the World’s Best Thermal Grotto Spa by the World SPA Awards.
The pearl of the resort, of course, is its underground grotto, which is divided into three zones: Paradise; Purgatory, with the 34-degree Lago del Limbo; and Hell.
