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Palazzo Fiuggi’s beautiful ballroom turned gym
Many people would say life is priceless, especially their own, yet don’t always adopt the basic principles that enhance wellbeing and longevity.
Those involved in health and safety or government policy need a financial figure to work with in order to allocate resources sensibly. For instance, the cost effectiveness of road safety schemes or medical intervention. The Bible and the Koran outline compensation paid to the family of a murder victim. Anglo Saxon law had “wergild” or “bode” as compensation paid to the family by the murderer. If they couldn’t pay, they were exiled or sold into slavery.
Different measures are used by organisations to value life. The VSL, Value of a Statistical Life is essentially what a society is prepared to pay to save one anonymous life. Another approach is the Human Capital Method which assesses future earnings. With this method, older people would be worth much less than a child with a lifetime’s earnings ahead. These statistical assessments can value a life from a few £million down to zero for some groups.
The NHS can value a QALY, Quality Adjusted Life Year at just £20-£30,000 before deciding whether to give expensive medical treatment. Different countries and societies will place different values on a human life, and that tends to be worth a lot less as a commodity on the State balance sheet than to the individual.
For me and you, our lives are priceless, and the older and wealthier people become the greater the value of those diminishing life years ahead. I choose to pay forward for the chance to die young as late as possible.
Palazzo Fiuggi in the Apennine Mountain foothills
Historically most people died from external factors, generally disease or war. The shift in the last century is that most people now die from internally generated illness and ageing. So now, lifestyle choices have the greatest impact on longevity.
Average male life expectancy 200 years ago was around 40 for a newborn. Better sanitation and healthcare have pushed that to around 79 in the UK today. But technology and increasing wealth have led to poor lifestyle choices and stagnant or declining life expectancy figures.
And healthy life expectancy hasn’t progressed so well either. In the most industrialised economies like America, the last ten years for many, are a debilitated endurance test on multiple prescription drugs. In Westminster London where I live, healthy lifespan is just 62 years, slightly above the national average, a nineteen gap between full life expectancy of 81 for men.
More information is becoming available with attention focussed on the individual to step up for their own healthcare and wellbeing. Regular exercise, good sleep, better diets, positive psychology and healthy social bonds all help. These are areas that we can continually nudge into positive directions.
I also like to escape into nature or the retreats and spas of the growing wellness industry; always learning something to bring back and integrate into my life. My latest visit was to the sumptuous Palazzo Fiuggi Medispa outside Rome. An easy flight which makes even shorter visits possible where you can switch into relaxation mode from day one.
Set on the outskirts of a historic spa village, Palazzo Fiuggi is a grand old hotel that’s been totally refurbished into a Medispa by the Forte Village owners at a cost of £25m. It lends its luxury heritage through the fabric of the building to give a spacious indulgence unlike most purpose-built spas. Half the ground floor is used for fitness and diagnostics with the entire lower ground remodelled for an extensive network of treatment rooms and pools.
And this is not an austerity boot-camp spa where you’ll fight over the last grape rolling off the table. They’ve recognised a big market for people that aren’t addicts with serious health issues but who want an intelligent approach to wellness and longevity, with a restful enjoyable break.
In the triple height dining room, 3-Michelin-Star chef Heinz Beck brings his expertise in Natural Bio-Energy to create beautiful food that runs to 3-4 courses for breakfast lunch and dinner. You eat clean and still lose excess weight. Remarkable!
A long menu of herb teas are offered and prepared fresh from the trolley in the main dining room. Coffee is available if you ask.
They are even flirting with allowing the bar to be replenished. And of course, because the staff are Italian, the restaurant ambience is warm, efficient and professional.
Healthcare can be fun, and detoxing is better when it shifts you into habits you’re more likely to maintain. Crash detoxing is unlikely to be warmly embraced as a regular lifestyle ritual.
The rooms off the wide hallways are grand, classically modern and comfortable.
An entire smorgasbord of treatments are available including medical skincare, scrubs, massages, hammams, flotation beds etc., and a first for me, the water cannon. I’ve always wondered what a rioter feels like. The key is to hold tight to the wall bars and resist the pummelling. I found it violently therapeutic in a nice way.
I loved the daily three-pool flotation room. First, is twenty minutes floating dreamily in magnesium salts. If you have cuts or grazes this will sting initially. Second, after a quick shower, is a dead-sea-like flotation for fifteen minutes. Then third is the cold plunge pool at a bracing 4⁰C for three minutes. I managed six by the last day. 😊
I lost count of the amount of indoor and outdoor pools.
Balance and posture are important indicators for later health issues. Poor balance, or weight distribution puts excess stress on parts of the body which can then lead to decline. Understanding where you’re going off kilter can help take action at an early stage.
The fitness coordinators at Palazzo Fiuggi have some very clever software and equipment to analyse balance, posture, walking, jumping, gait, cognitive coordination, etc., and give comprehensive reports. My balance used to be pin sharp excellent, and it’s confirmed as not quite so anymore ☹ but I have exercises now to improve it.
There’s lots to do outdoors as well. Hiking for longevity programmes are organised with some historic routes included.
Of course, the ‘Wayne & Waynetta’ matching tracksuits were nicely fitted, as one would expect in Italy. Palazzo Fiuggi – for a longer life better lived. One to return to.
Michael Van Clarke
When an industry gangs up on its customers to suit itself, it never ends well. Eventually the mis-selling and other scandals come to light, then the providers close ranks, obfuscate, and gaslight the customers into thinking they are in the wrong or they themselves are the problem.
