It feels like summer in Italy just finished but we’re actually well into autumn at the moment and it’s time to prepare our Christmas vacations in Italy. As in every year, northern Italy offers the best for a white Christmas atmosphere with Christmas markets, skiing, health spas and beautiful landscapes. In the heart of the Friuli Venezia Giulia, the town of Sauris in Carnia is hosting a market from December 4 to 8.

The festival features the best in antiques, local produce, folkloric events and the best in local Italian cuisine. Going to Carnia.it you’ll find packages of four days and three nights with local dinners, food tastings and market visits from about 205 euros. Accommodation on offer in the area ranges from hotels to apartments where, with just 38 euros a night, you can stay at Borgo Soandri for example, until December 19.

Carnia is a distance away from the traditional Christmas market area of Alto Adige but the trip is worth it for a more intimate atmosphere away from the crowds. If you’re looking for a rural setting with beautiful landscapes and local traditions, check out Carnia.it for more information.

Photos | Sauris.org

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Dreaming of escaping the stress and pressures of every day life? Well don’t dream, but act and take a well deserved time out! The 500 square metre Excelsior hotel and spa in Pesaro has plenty to offer; from unique body therapies to breathtaking views over the Adriatic sea. Guests can benefit from both traditional and innovative beauty treatments plus natural holistic therapy. At this luxury hotel you will discover a place with an atmosphere of complete calm!

Continue reading: Excelsior luxury spa Hotel in Pesaro

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There are two destinations for summer in Italy: either the seaside or the mountains, with the latter generally being chosen by anyone over the age of 50. Escaping the oppressive heat of Milan, many oldies go to the Valtellina valley which stretches north of Lake Como for some fresh mountain air and wonderful views.

If you want to explore the valley, be sure not to miss the spa and thermal springs at Bormio. Bormio is a skiing location, on more than one occasion hosting the European championships, and is full of hotels, boutique shops and mountain landscape. The spas or “Bagni di Bormio” are located just outside of town and include both ‘old’ and ‘new’ baths.

The old baths are ancient grottos which provide the natural warm springs for a very rustic, almost prehistoric, sauna and bath. The new baths have been built with new spas, saunas, fountains and pools and outside you can enjoy a warm splash while taking in the surrounding mountains.

The spa is situated in a grand old hotel and to pamper yourself in August for four nights with bed and breakfast at the Hotel Bagni Vecchi costs about 448 euros a head. It gives you unlimited access to spa and health centre and a ten percent discount on any beauty or massage treatments you might like to indulge in. See the Bagni di Bormio site for more details.

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The new health spa opening in the Monza-Brianza region of Italy just north of Milan will soon be joined by Italy’s first undercover water amusement park. The fun park includes 9,000 square metres of space with a capacity to hold 1,500 people at a time. Just outside Milan, the Parco di Concorezzo will be perfect for those wanting a fun park close to Milan, without having to go to Gardaland or Caneva on Lake Garda.

The centre will be open by the end of 2010 with a modern design, and will be able to host visitors from Italy and around the world even in the cold months. The water fun park will be divided into different areas: one with a swimming pool, waterfalls, lagoon and wave pools, and the other will be an adventure area with nine water slides. A kids zone and relaxation area is included, with warm water, thermal waterfalls, grottos and an external, heated pool. I personally can’t wait!

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Skiing can be hard work, but skiing in Italy is nothing but easy with plenty of health spa offerings to relax. After a day of chair lifts and black run skiing with some ice, there’s nothing better than to unwind in hot thermal springs with spas and saunas at your service.

Combining your skiing and health spa vacation in Italy is easy at the Terme di Vinadio thermal springs. It’s located in Piedmont, about 35 km from Cuneo and close to the French border.

Health spa/skiing deals include three, four or seven days with buffet breakfast, lunch on the slopes, dinner, health spa access and ski passes to the Argentera ski resort. Prices range from 290 to 770 euros a person. Try it for a Saint Valentine’s break in Italy!

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If you didn’t spend New Year’s Eve in Italy, you still have plenty of time to enjoy the Italian winter, skiing and health spa activities. In Tuscany the Versilia Thermal Springs are offering beauty treatments and packages for the current season, with special offers available until the Epiphany on January 6th.

The Villa Undulna, named in honour of the Italian poet Gabriele D’Annunzio, offers spa baths, skin treatments, massages, sauna and Turkish steam baths, together with soft, relaxing music and hot teas. The hotel itself is surrounded by gardens and has restaurant and fitness facilities.

The health spa focuses on water and mud-bath treatments as follows:

The uniqueness of the treatments offered in the Terme lie in the combination of bromo-iodic-salty wather and therapeutic mud from the Massaciuccoli Lake. These rare and precious natural elements are used both for the prevention of arthro-rheumatic condition and vasculohepatic or dermatological complaints, as well as for relax and beauty baths, given their effectiveness against cellulite.

The comfortable booths are equipped with leading-edge technology, specifically designed for each need. The competent and professional medical staff guarantee that the pursued goals will be attained, either through the fixed thermal programs.

For more details on health spa packages and beauty treatments, as well as the hotel and rooms, see the Terme della Versilia website.

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Combining health spas with New Year’s Eve in Italy is a great way to prepare for 2010, and the island of Ischia in Campania, and its thermal springs could be the place for you. You can celebrate San Silvestro by drinking spumante and enjoying the hot spring spas.

Packages on offer at Ischia health spa and Hotel Terme Principe include the four day “Coccoliamoci” for 372 euros a person, the five-day package at 440 euros and seven days for 576 euros. The offer includes New Year’s Eve Italian dinner with music and dancing (drinks excluded), lunch on the 1st of January, full board, buffet breakfast and a New Year’s health spa package. See the Benessere Ischia site for more details.

Photo | Flickr

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Spend New Year’s Eve in Italy at the San Lorenzo Mountain Lodge in Val Pusteria. Surrounded by beautiful woods and majestic mountains, the lodge offers guest luxury accommodation (four rooms and a lovely kitchen) and state of the art facilities; the place which has just been inaugurated boasts whirlpool, Finnish sauna, Turkish bath, chromo therapy and other treatment rooms where one can kick back and relax. Equinoxe will present you with a champagne case, so be ready to pop the bubbly, clink the glasses and raise a toast for good times and good cheer. For further information please call 011.8185270 or write to the following address: daniela.micheletti@equinoxe.it

Continue reading: Luxury New Year breaks in the Alps: San Lorenzo Mountain Lodge, Val Pusteria

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Monza is opening its health spas for the winter season in Italy, and the thermal springs are offering four days’ free entry to celebrate the occasion. The health spas open on December 5th in time for the long weekend in Italy and some relaxing treatments after the first serious snow falls of the season.

The Monza health spas are managed by a group which owns other spa facilities in Italy in Bormio, Milano, and the Pré Saint Didier in the Valle d’Aosta, which is right next to the royal villa and park.

If you decide to drop by, the health spa is also offering a welcome buffet of fruit, homemade yoghurt and other products from the Brianza area north of Milan. For more information, see the health spa website.

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You’re spoiled for choice with health spas in Italy, but if you want something very traditional, almost hard-core, try the sulphur spring baths “Terme di Saturnia” near the town of Grosseto in Tuscany. For 3000 years sulphur springs have been emerging from the land here (at a rate of 800 litres per second!), and they’re now at the centre of a large health spa resort.

The Terme di Saturnia resort also has an 18-hole golf course attached to the spa resort, and all the beauty treatments you could possibly imagine. A new feature of the resort complex is The Black Rose luxury relaxation area, made from black oak and offering personalised treatment services and therapies.

Check out all the Terme di Saturnia health spa facilities and offers on the official Saturnia site and whether your budget stretches to the Black Rose or not, see the information anyway. There’s no harm in dreaming!

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We saw the guide to where to fall in love in Rome, but here is one that might appeal more to your naughty side: 100 sexy things to do in Rome. It’s not just about romance in Rome, or getting married in Italy, it’s more about exploring the sensual, and sometimes seedy, side of the eternal city.

The authors of the guide “100 cose sexy da fare a Roma almeno una volta nella vita“, have done their homework and actually tried most of what you’ll find in the guide. If you’re not reading the guide in Italian, following are a few tips on how to be sexy in Rome.

Continue reading: 100 sexy things to do in Rome

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Salsomaggiore Terme in Parma hosts the Miss Italy event every year, and so it can be expected to qualify as Italy’s temple to beauty and cathedral of good health. Autumn in Italy is perfect for a trip to a health spa, and the Salsomaggiore Terme are perhaps the historic mecca for health spa enthusiasts here.

Over 4,000 square metres of beauty treatments and health spa services can be found here, from thermal showers to all types of massages (believe me they have everything). The traditional building will give you a feeling of having an authentic Italian health spa experience and if you really want to indulge, hotel packages will give you deals for a weekend or overnight stay.

The Salsomaggiore Terme are located in Parma, not far from Milan, and have health spa packages ranging from one day to a whole week of pampering. For details on what to book and how to get there, see the Salsomaggiore website.

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