Santa Lucia

Thermal baths just aren’t really a thing in the US. I finally realized what is so odd about them…no life guards!! And this place was huge. So many pools and places to relax, both indoor and outdoors. The water was 35 C which is really comfortable. With the package we bought the adults got to go into the spa area. So Michael and I decided to check it out while Ian napped with Mom. We had to change out of our normal bathing suits and into some weird disposable bathing suit that was heat proof. The woman at the desk said we could join a “ritual” if we wanted to. We had no idea what this meant. Anyway I noticed there is a schedule on the wall and that it is nearly time for the Nordic relaxation ritual in the Russian bath. Whatever that meant. Then Michael noticed a little basket that was supposed to have tokens. It appeared all of the tokens were gone, but then we noticed behind the sign that two remained. I quickly grabbed them. Right then a couple people came over also trying to get tokens. Tough luck for them. We followed the herd of people all in their weird disposable bathing suits to the Russian baths dropped our tokens in the basket and entered. The dude leading the “ritual” says a bunch of stuff really fast in Italian and I catch a list of essential oils and that it will last twelve minutes. He and this other dude then put what looks like a snow ball on the hot rocks and the room fills with scents. Pleasant. They then start to wave flags. Weird. The point of it appears to be to waft the scent around. Okay. That’s nice. And then it starts to get real. The real purpose is to redistribute heat. And this thing is hot like the goddam sun. By the end Michael and I (and all the other people) are drenched in sweat and I thought my contact lens would fuse to my eyeballs while my skin would burst into flame. At one point I felt cold almost because I think my nerves were totally whacked. Oh yeah and this really loud German language music was playing. So weird. But I did feel great by the end of it. Since we only had about forty five minutes to spend in the spa this was totally the way to go. Overall we spent about eight hours at the complex and it was a great day!Read more