Luxury hotel group Rocco Forte has launched a new brand-wide spa concept, Rocco Forte Spas, with a flagship location at the company’s Verdura Resort in Sicily.
The offering is “born from the desire to find wellbeing in all the environments that surround us, not only creating an unforgettable experience during a stay at our properties, but also creating new habits that can be continued at home,” the company said.
The new spa programme has four components, combining treatments with beauty products, fitness and food. Irene Forte, daughter of owner Sir Rocco Forte, is heading up the spa programme.
TreatmentsRocco Forte Rituals are the treatments offered in all of the Rocco Forte spas, using the newly-created Forte Organics product line, while Rocco Forte Fitness combines the latest clothing, technology and equipment with innovative trainers. Rocco Forte Nourish is a new healthy food offering, with programmes catered to each location in partnership with local healthy eating experts.
Rocco Forte Rituals include a facial ritual, back ritual, body ritual and couples’ ritual. The back ritual combines a back exfoliation with a herbal compress and ends with a massage using lemon and mandarin custom-blended essential oils, followed by a Rocco Forte Nourish smoothie, which contains some of the same ingredients as the skincare line, such as almond milk, hibiscus, apricot and mandarin.
The rituals have strong local accents unique to each location. For instance, at Verdura Resort, the treatment room is filled with Sicilian aromas, decorated with Sicilian majolica tile print bed covers and ceramic plates and bowls from Sciacca. Lemons and lavendar are also incorporated, and every passage from one stage of a ritual to the next is signalled by the ringing of bells from the Burgio bell foundry.
ProductsForte Organics, the company’s new branded bio-cosmetic line, is made in Italy by Effegi Lab. It features organic, natural and active Sicilian ingredients including Verdura’s organic olive oil, Sicilian nut oil, plants, fruits and flowers, and the base of the creams is oligomineral water from the Sicilian Madonie Regional Natural Park, which is rich in magnesium sulfate.
The line includes an almond cleansing milk, citrus toner, hibiscus serum, opuntia day cream, hibiscus night cream, almond and hazelnut face scrub, pomegranate face mask, citrus body cream, white wine body emulsion, apricot shower gel oil, vitamin E hand cream and medlar fruit body scrub, and items are available for purchase at retail at Rocco Forte locations.
FitnessThe Rocco Forte Fitness pillar, inspired by the Forte family’s commitment to sport, uses cutting-edge gadgets and equipment and works with professional trainers for support.
Rocco Forte has also partnered with Italian luxury brand Back Label to create a line of handcrafted fitness clothing exclusively for the brand. Back Label creates clothing from elements such as milk, seaweed, bamboo and silk, organic cotton and eucalyptus, chosen for their nourishing benefits to the skin – which adds to the ethos of Rocco Forte Spas.
Rocco Forte will also stock Every Second Counts products, a fitness wear brand that targets time-constrained, style-conscious men and women. All of the spas will be equipped with Kit&Run, created by Every Second Counts, a new service designed to offer a simple solution for guests who do not have a gym kit with them.
Gyms are equipped with Technogym equipment and technology, and Rocco Forte Spas will be introducing a Cloud Wellness app that allows training to be tracked and monitored by the hotels’ personal trainers, wherever the guest may be.
In addition to running maps available to guests in their rooms, many of the Rocco Forte Hotels will now offer sightseeing running tours, combining the culture of the city with fitness. Roman Triathalon world champion Danilo Pamucci offers a selection of cycling and running tours at Hotel de Russie in Rome, and at Hotel de Rome in Berlin, guests can enjoy rooftop yoga sessions and unique views of the city.
Rocco Forte Spas has also partnered with DNA Fit, a programme that uses scientific advancements in human genomics to analyse the relationship between genes, nutrition and lifestyle.
FoodRocco Forte Nourish menus are created with local nutritionists and healthy chefs, including Madeleine Shaw, chef and author of ‘Get the Glow,’ who has created healthy options for Brown’s Hotel in London. Also on board is record-breaking, round-the-world cyclist and TV presenter Mark Beaumont, who will help create the menu at The Balmoral in Edinburgh.
In-room bars will also be stocked with healthy snacks and drinks like LoveRaw bars, Roo Bars, inSpiral kale chips and vegetable crackers, Raw Ecstasy nuts, coconut water and Vivid matcha drinks.
Flagship locationVerdura Resort in Sicily is the flagship spa of Rocco Forte Spas, with a 4,000sq m (43,056sq ft) spa complex with 11 treatment rooms, a 170sq m (1,830sq ft) gym, fitness studio, a 25m (82ft) indoor lap pool, four outdoor thalassotherapy pools, a double-height steamroom, infrared sauna, Finnish saunas and a spa bar.
The Verdura Spa philosophy is based on naturopathic medicine movement founder Sebastian Kneipp’s five pillars: water, plants, exercise, nutrition and balance. Therapists at Verdura perform treatments using different temperature compresses, private steam baths, a hydro-massage bath and a whirlpool, or guests can follow a thalasso circuit at their leisure in the resort’s four outdoor thalassotherapy pools.
Verdura also includes sunset and sunrise yoga sessions; jogging, trekking and cycling trails through the resort’s olive, orange and lemon trees; six clay tennis courts and a PGA golf academy.
Verdura Spa has created a Spa for the Mind in partnership with School of Life, which includes themed, curated reading lists available in the spa library, with books aimed to help reflection, replenishment and relaxation.
The hotel will also offer five health-focused, three- or six-day programmes, including Fit, Slim, Detox, Anti-Age and Relax, which will integrate Kneipp’s pillars, and which feature consultations with the fitness manager, and tips to take home.
In addition, Verdura has partnered with trainer Harry Jameson and clinical hypnotherapist, neuro-linguistic programming practitioner and mindfulness coach Terrence The Teacher for a series of retreats.
Family-run Rocco Forte, owned by British hotelier Sir Rocco Forte and his sister, Olga Polizzi, includes 10 hotels and resorts in landmark European locations. The brand has plans to expand into Jeddah this year and Shanghai in 2018.
Rocco Forte previously launched a
preventative health programme, Vita Health, in 2002.
