Here’s What It’s Like At Orient Express’ First Ever Spa

Legendary luxury train artisan Orient Express is embarking on a bold new journey to redefine modern travel. For one, the iconic brand is preparing to shake up the cruise market with the launch of its first two ultra-luxe yet eco-conscious sailing yachts, Orient Express Corinthian, in June. Before that, in April, the brand will open the canal-side Orient Express Venezia, a former 15th century palace transformed into a 47-room luxury hotel in the heart of the floating city. 

But it was last year that the brand’s new era of travel commenced with the launch of its first hotel, Orient Express La Minerva in Rome, to coincide with the launch of the La Dolce Vita train, which runs curated journeys across Italy inspired by 1960s glamour. And now La Minerva is complete: the brand has opened its much-anticipated first spa beneath the Rome hotel. C&TH was among the first to review this exceptional wellness sanctuary in the heart of the Eternal City.

Review: The SPA at Orient Express La Minerva, Rome

I’m reclining on a canopy-style bed, sipping olive leaf tea and soaking up the Roman-thermae-meets-Turkish-baths vibe. Delicate latticework moucharabieh screens create a sense of Eastern intrigue and intimacy, while the raw matt walls, hand-blown Murano light fixtures and richly patterned marble floors add Italian pizzazz.

The SPA at Orient Express La Minerva is the first of its kind for the resurgent luxury travel group. La Minerva marked its debut five-star hotel opening when it premiered last year, and its design cleverly riffs on the spirit of the legendary 19th century Orient Express journey connecting Paris to Constantinople. At the heart is a vast marble hammam, an ancient Ottoman purification ritual rooted in both Roman and Byzantine bathing traditions. As one of the first reviewers to sample this deeply immersive, subterranean wellness destination, I can report that I felt both transported and transformed by the experience.

The golden age of travel is evoked the moment you step inside the hotel itself – a 17th century palazzo on the secluded Piazza della Minerva, just a stone’s throw from the Pantheon. Built in 1620 for the Portuguese Fonseca noble family and converted into a hotel in 1811, it reopened last year after a major four-year renovation under the dazzling direction of Franco-Mexican artist-architect and interior designer Hugo Toro.

The imposing lobby with its historic grand skylight exudes Art Deco glamour, the mood of artful decadence reinforced by acres of gleaming polished wood in the reception areas, leather accents inspired by vintage luggage, and a central cocktail bar, presided over by 19th century sculptor Rinaldo Rinaldi’s marble masterpiece of the goddess Minerva. During my stay, the lobby’s La Minerva Bar is transformed into a scented lemon grove to mark the spring residency of Capri’s celebrated Da Paolino restaurant. I’m still reliving every delectable bite of the salt-crusted sea bass with grilled asparagus.

Toro’s makeover breathes new life into a property that was once a hub for Grand Tour travellers and prominent artists and intellectuals, such as Moby Dick author Herman Melville, Picasso and French novelist Stendhal. And at the rooftop Gigi Rigolatto restaurant and Bellini Bar (where seasonal menus celebrate southern Italy and la dolce vita), my eyes flitting from the Pantheon to the dome of St Peter’s Basilica, I feel like I’m on my own mini Grand Tour.

The sense of adventure is continued in the 93 rooms and 36 suites, which feature bespoke bedside trunks, wooden detailing reminiscent of carriages, and sumptuous linens by Rivolta Carmignani, which once graced the sleeper cars. Look up, and you’ll even see a hand-painted motif of the Roman sky above the bed. Walk along the elegant corridors lined with vintage-style mirrors and bespoke oak doors and you could be moving between coaches. In homage to the Eternal City, find rough textured walls that conjure the city’s countless crumbling facades and shell-shaped Rosso Verona marble bathroom basins that honour Rome’s famous fountains.

The idea underpinning the SPA is a sensorial journey through a series of baths and treatments, with each stage preparing you for the next. Unsurprisingly, steam plays a major role, taking you from a tepidarium, which allows you to acclimatise, to the caldarium, combining pools and aromatic steam, and finally, the frigidarium for an invigorating cold plunge.

Emperor-worthy pampering includes rose-infused foot baths, deep-cleansing Kassa exfoliation, ghassoul clay wraps using volcanic clay from Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, and foaming massages. All are designed to awaken your senses and leave you feeling both relaxed and revived.

There are two treatment rooms, where exclusive skincare partner Furtuna Skin works its holistic magic, using products formulated with ingredients cultivated on the brand’s 865-acre organic estate in Sicily. Founded by charismatic former international model Agatha Relota Luczo, this multi-award-winning yet still niche brand boasts a roll call of celebrity devotees, and is widely regarded as a pioneer in clean beauty. 

But there’s nothing mainstream about Furtuna, which makes it the ideal fit for Orient Express. The history of both brands is quite remarkable – as I discovered over two days exploring the restored grand hotel, one of the oldest in Rome, and experiencing first-hand the regenerative powers of Furtuna’s ‘wildly potent’ botanicals.

Set within the Monti Sicani Biological Preserve in central-western Sicily, Furtuna’s certified organic farm, La Furtuna Estate, is home to an astonishing 500-plus plant varieties and more than 50 medicinal herbs as well as 12,000 olive trees, including some that are 600 to 1,500 years old, and species that have been saved from extinction. Combining old world nature with modern science, Furtuna is committed to conserving the region’s rich biodiversity as well as boosting the local economy through much needed employment. 

‘This is a protected paradise. We preserve ancient varieties and uphold traditional practices passed down through generations,’ says Relota Luczo, who works alongside the estate’s master botanist and agronomist Dr Pasquale Marino. ‘Our relationship with the biopreserve is symbiotic. When you come to the farm, you can feel its heartbeat.’

Furtuna’s skincare is powered by both proprietary olive oil and wild-foraged botanicals, and Relota Luczo worked with Orient Express La Minerva to develop a menu of bespoke facials and massages for The SPA. A double-certified olive oil sommelier, mother-of-four Relota Luczo is evangelical about the anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial benefits of olive oil and olive leaf water. ‘Our extra virgin olive oil has 66 percent more polyphenols and eight percent more sterols than typical high quality olive oil, and our olive leaf water formula base is more powerful than commercially sourced counterparts,’ she says.

Treatments featuring Furtuna’s natural active ingredients are designed to revitalise, restore and calm both the mind and body, with tuning forks and obsidian Gua Sha the only tools. ‘We don’t use machines, just our hands,’ says my therapist Amalia, who sets about restoring my chakra alignment using said tuning forks and Tibetan bells as part of the 60-minute Vibrancy facial. ‘Mamma mia, Rome is always so busy, we want our clients to relax.’ 

Drifting off while she massages my feet after applying a nourishing face mask, I conjure the Dolce Vita image of a free-spirited, youthful Sophia Loren running through lemon groves. If you’re looking for ‘that natural, carefree Italian glow’, as Rolota Luzo puts it, you’ll find it here in the heart of Rome.

BOOK IT

To book The SPA at Orient Express La Minerva, visit orient-express.com

Juliet’s return flights from London to Rome emitted 436.1kg CO2e. ecollectivecarbon.com