As wellness consumers' fascination with sauna bathing reaches new heights, Italy’s luxury hospitality sector has tapped into this trend with dedicated sauna retreats.

From 20-27 October 2024, Dolce Vita Hotels – a collection of five family-run luxury wellness resorts in South Tyrol – will introduce an exclusive wellness event, called Sauna Around Week, celebrating the ancient European tradition of aufguss.

Aufguss is an entertaining, communal sauna ritual that – at its simplest – involves an aufguss master waving a towel to distribute the sauna’s heat, usually set to music and with essential oil fragrances adding to the experience. But the top sauna masters can get very creative, weaving in storylines, costumes, and complex movements to enhance the experience.

The event will span across Dolce Vita’s five resorts, including Preidlhof, Alpiana, Jagdhof, Lindenhof and Feldhof, each offering its own distinct retreat atmosphere. Every day, one of these resorts will host three Aufguss sessions, giving guests ample opportunity to dive into this cultural tradition.

Leading the week’s festivities will be two world-class sauna masters: Michael Niedermair, the newly crowned 2024 sauna master world champion, and Kasia Klajn, a former world champion, ensuring that guests enjoy top-tier sauna expertise and creativity.

Complimentary experience

Guests staying at any Dolce Vita property can move freely between the resorts, either on foot or with a short drive, to witness the sauna masters in action.

Sauna Around Week will be entirely complimentary for guests who will also encouraged to take advantage of the group’s "hotel hopping" concept, which allows them to enjoy the luxurious spa amenities at any of the resorts without additional cost.

Sabrina Telfser, sauna master and spa manager at Preidlhof, explains: “With 38 pools, 32 saunas, 28 relaxation rooms and five SkySpas between them, Dolce Vita Hotels are at the forefront of wellness.

"Each property offers a sanctuary of relaxation, complete with breathtaking spa facilities, from infinity pools to sauna towers – all designed to promote rejuvenation in harmony with nature.

“South Tyrol has firmly established itself as a wellness destination, and whether you're a novice or aspiring sauna master, Dolce Vita Hotels provide the perfect setting to explore and embrace sauna culture.”

Following its debut in 2024, Sauna Around Week will become a biannual event, hosted every April and October.