Take it easy
Stress and back pain are forgotten as Neil Geraghty enjoys a much needed time out, which includes yoga and the best organic food
A yoga break in Tuscany
For many of us, living in the digital age comes at a heavy price. Chronic back pain and stress are part and parcel of hours spent hunched over glowing screens and every now and again it’s wise to stretch out, disconnect from our gadgets and give some TLC to both our minds and bodies. I’m on a hatha yoga workshop in the five star Adler Thermae Spa & Relax Resort in Tuscany’s beautiful Val d’orcia and although it’s only my first session, as I kneel down on all fours in the cat position, my normally tense back muscles begin to relax and a pleasant tingling sensation spreads along the length of my spine.
The Val d’orcia has a long tradition of therapeutic cures. In the nearby village of Bagno Vignoni, hot springs that have been popular since the Etruscan era bubble out of the ground and to this day are used to treat rheumatism, arthritis and skin conditions. The Adler makes full use of this mineral rich water and the resort is built around steaming pools set in herb-filled gardens. I arrive after a long two-hour transfer from Rome airport and can’t resist heading straight to the inviting pools to relax. A carpet of unseasonal snow has transformed the landscape into a winter wonderland and birds hop around the pool edges to keep warm in clouds of steam. I lie down on a fizzing hydrotherapy platform and look around at my fellow guests. Italians love taking short breaks in thermal spas and the pool is full of guests of all ages. Especially touching is a family who have brought their disabled grandfather to enjoy the thermal waters. His teenage grandsons carefully lift him out of his wheelchair into the pool and the look of sheer joy on his face as they swim out into the water together is magic to watch.
My first yoga lesson begins at 8am the next morning and is led by guest practitioner Dr Barbara Woehler who runs Rome’s Centre for Yoga Studies and is one of Italy’s leading hatha yoga teachers. With more than 40 years of experience, she quickly identifies our needs. I’ve joined a group of medical professionals and academics and the fast pace of modern life has left us with over active minds, poor postures and muscular tension. As we sit cross legged on yoga mats, Barbara explains that hatha yoga is an ideal tool to help combat these issues as it’s all about rebalancing the ha (solar) and tha (lunar) energies to achieve equilibrium within our minds and bodies. During our fourday workshop we’ll work towards this by exploring the first four tenets of the classic Patanjali eight-stage yoga path with special emphasis placed on breathing, realignment of the spine and deep meditation. After 30 minutes’ theory we get down to some simple yoga exercises in which we control our breathing and explore the nature of relaxation by tensing and relaxing various muscle groups. The lesson lasts for 85 minutes and the mixture of theory and practice in these long sessions is an excellent way to memorise the principles of yoga which can otherwise be quickly forgotten in standard 50 minute sessions.
Straight after the lesson we head to the restaurant for a late breakfast. Many of Adler’s therapies take place in the morning and in line with the hotel’s relaxed ethos it’s perfectly
We squat on our haunches and roar at the horizon during the wonderful lion pose
acceptable to come straight from the spa in dressing gowns to enjoy informal breakfasts and lunches. The Val d’orcia is renowned for its organic produce and the restaurant sources many of its ingredients locally including spelt which is used in the hotel’s 16 varieties of delicious bread. The breakfast buffet also offers a selection of local Tuscan cheeses, hams and homemade preserves including an exquisite fig jam lightly spiced with cloves. I pile my plate high with local delicacies and as I do so I’m acutely aware that these tempting buffets might prove to be the Achilles heel of my wellness break.
In our afternoon lesson we’re introduced to yoga nidra, a powerful guided meditation technique in which we learn to relax all our muscles and insert positive intentions, sankalpa, into our subconscious. During yoga nidra the body can cool down dramatically and to counteract this we lie under fluffy blankets to keep warm. Throughout the meditation Barbara’s mellifluous voice effortlessly flits between English and Italian and the effect is strangely hypnotic, so much so that one or two members of our group fall sound asleep and start snoring. Unaccustomed to feeling so relaxed, my body feels quite shell shocked after the meditation, but the relaxation doesn’t stop there. I’ve booked a Haki flow session at the spa and not knowing what to expect I nervously follow my therapist, Giordano into an outdoor hydrotherapy pool.
Haki flow is named after its Austrian inventor Harald Kitz and is a technique in which a therapist manoeuvres your floating body in a flowing current of water to stretch and relax tense muscles and to generate a sense of mental well being. In the pool Giordano attaches elastic ropes to my ankles and secures them to the side of the pool. He then props up my back with floats, cradles my head in his hands and working against the water’s flow, gently manipulates my shoulders from side to side in slow snake like movements. The effect is so subtle I barely notice my back relaxing and after half an hour my spine is making dramatic S shaped movements, a flexibility that I haven’t experienced in years.
Haki flow works well in loosening up the body for yoga and the next day I’m ready to try some more complex asanas (yoga poses) including the wonderful lion pose during which we squat on our haunches and roar at the horizon. Maintaining the poses is surprisingly exhausting and in between lessons I’m glad to have time to enjoy Adler’s seven beautiful saunas including the Philosopher’s Cave, a Turkish bath set in a candle lit grotto dotted with stalactites. A highlight of the day’s spa activities is a ventilation ritual that takes place each evening in a panoramic Finnish sauna set high upon the hillside overlooking the resort. During the ritual, a masseur throws fragrant oils and water on to hot coals and with all the grace of a matador twirls a towel around his head sending clouds of invigorating steam into the faces of the guests.
After our final yoga lesson, Barbara reminds us that the seven lessons that we’ve had are merely the first steps of a long journey. Before I leave, I take one last dip in the thermal pools where I swim over to the water’s edge and gaze out over the Tuscan landscape.
The rolling hills of the Val d’orcia where olive groves, vineyards and rows of graceful cypresses follow the contours of the slopes are a masterpiece of Renaissance landscaping that has been granted World Heritage status by Unesco. Thinking back to Barbara’s words I can’t think of a more inspiring location to embark on that journey.