Beauty and Wellness package

THERMAE ON THE ISLAND OF ISCHIA
Why choose Ischia to look after your health? The Island of Ischia is not only rich in thermal springs whit numerous therapeutic virtues, it also boasts a fortunate geographic position which guarantees ideal climatic and environmental conditions for restoring the body and sprint on the entire island: the rocky cliffs of Epomeo, the vineryard cultivation on the gently rolling hills, the relaxing pine groves, the fresh sea breeze, the beaches and the ambundance of suggestive panoramas make the ancient land of Inarimae a sweet, enchanted garden where one can enjoy the benefits of the springs of eternal youth.

THE HISTORY OF THE THERMAE OF ISCHIA
The thermal waters of the island of Ischia have been famous and used since olden times. As shown by the numerous archaeological Museum of Villa Arbusto in Lacco Ameno, the first Euboean colonist, (VIII century B.C), appreciated and used the thermal spring waters of Ischia.
In fact, the Greeks used the thermal waters to strengthen the spirit and the body and as a remedy for the consequences of war wounds, (in the pre-antibiotic era), attributing supernatural powers to the waters and vapours that gushed out of the earth; it was not by coincide that temples dedicated to Apollo at Delfi, culd be found at each thermal resort.
Strabone, the Greeks historian and geographer cities the Island of Ischia and virues of its thermal spring in his monumental geographic work.
If the Greeks were the first to discover the power of thermal waters, the Romans exalted them as a curing and relaxing instrument throught the creation of public Thermae and by using the numerous island springs safely and profitably and without any ostentatious ceremonies (as shown in the votive tablets found at the Spring of Nitrodi at Barano d’Ischia, wherea small temple was dedicated to Apollo and the nymph Nitrodie, guardians of waters); in fact, unlike the case for Rome and other ancient thermal centres, no impressive traces of thermal establishments were found on the Island probably due to the volcanic eruptions and the earthquakes that frequently shook the island’s cliff.
The decline of Roman power coincided with the abandonment of the use of the balnea, even on Ischia: in fact there are no traces that show the waters were used during the middle Ages.
During the Renassaince period thermae and thermalism became populare once more and a Calabrian doctor, Giulio Iasolino, who was also a lecturer at the University of Naples, gave a decisive impulse to modern medicine in 1500 when, fascinated with the climate and phenomena of secondary volcanism (fumaroles and thermal waters) and sensing the therapeutic potential of the thermae, he carried out a meticulous census of the Island springs (the hydro – geological wealth of the island territory appeared in print for the first time). He identified the composition ot the waters and made detailed observations of the effect of the same on numerous pathologies that afflicted his contemporanies (in describing the Spring of Castiglione, one of the most famous at the time, Iasolino expressed all his enthusiasm for the thermal water: “Every day we see the effects and virtues of these waters, which are so mervellous and wonderfoul they must surely be a gift from heaven sent to cure men’s heatlh”). With the publication of the treatise “De Rimedi Naturali che sono nell’Isola di Pithecusa; oggi detta Ischia” (Natural Remedies on the Island of Pithecusa; Know today as Ischia), Professor Iasolino freed Ischia’s thermal waters from that magical aura that had conditioned their use until then.
After, Iasolino’s experience at the beginning of the 17th century, considering that many recoveries were obtained through thermal baths and that the treatments at Ischia, which were considerably expensive, could only be afforded by nobels or rich middleclass people, a group of noble Neapolitan philanthropist established the “Pio Monte della Misericordia” in the commune of Casamicciola, a thermal spa considered to be the largest in Europe at the time, so that the therapeutic qualities of the local thermal waters could also be enjoyed by people who did not have adequate economic possibilies. From the 17th to the middle of the 20th century numerous estbilishments and accommodation facilities were built near the most famous thermal springs.
Thanks to this, the island of Ischia become a famous international treatment and loading resort where famous people such as Giuseppe Garibaldi, after the battle Aspremont, Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour and Arturo Toscani came to cure the illnesses of the body, among other thinks. Thanks to farsightedness and the entrepreneurial insight of cav. Angelo Rizzoli, from the sixties onwards the Island of Ischia and its waters opened up to the large flow of tourists and an intense scientific activity consecrated thermal cures to the level of alternative therapies to pharmacological ones for curing many of the diseases already perfectly described by Iasolino.

HYDROTHERMAL RESOURCES
The 1301 eruption, which originated the trachytic flow from the Arso, was the last one to ever happen on the Island. However, the differential bradyseisms, the earthquakes and the exhalent – hydrothermal manifestations in the particular, show that the magmatic field on Ischia is still active. There are 29 thermal spring groups distribuited on the island territory, from which 103 springs and 69 fumarolic groups spout. The latter forms a manifestations the is strictly linked to the previous one since it is produced by the evaporation from the thermal table.
It can be started that wherever exhalten phenomena are present there are thermal waters in the subsoil. The link between the two types of manifestations is obvious since they both originate from the same thermal table. Areas with fumarolic fields and hydrothermal springs are distribuited more or less along the whole are behind the coastline, particularyin Maronti and near the town centres of Ischia, Casamicciola, Lacco Ameno and Forio. Further concentractions can be found in the internal area along the western border of Epomeo and the hinterland of Barano and Panza.
It is noted that all the fumarolic and hydrothermal groups can be found along the volcanic-tectonic lines or in corresponcede of ancient crateral vents. If it is considered that the table temperature, the level of permeability (to vapour and water) of the complex of terranes where the table is placed, and the ones overlooking the same, influence the vaportours manifestation to originating from a water table and their vharacteristics, it can be seen how, basically, the manifestations take place where there are tectonic peculiarities (faults, fractures) or structural peculiarities of the subsoil (lava flows etc.); in other words, where there are areas of relatively higher permeability. In the communes of Forio and Lacco Ameno the fumarolic groups of Casa Verde, Roccia della Frana, Montagna Nuova and Portella Bianca are in correspondence of the crateral edge of Mount Nuovo, Similary, in the commune of Lacco Ameno the groups of Mount Vico, Mount Tabor, Mount Rotaro and Citrunia (Forio Campotese) are in correspondence of the crateral edges of Mount Vico, Mounts Rotaro, Tabor and Imperatore. The groups of Bocca, Bellomo, Vagnulo, Schioppa di Montecorvo, in the Forio territory, are relative to the faulst system (non-spontaneus fractures) determining the western side of the Epomeo massif. The groups of Cava Fasaniello, Mount Cito, Mount di Mezzo, Fasano, Bianchetto and Regione Cratica (Casamicciola) are, in turn, relative to the fault system determining the northern side of the same Epomeo.
However, other groups exist where no tectonic peculiarities are noticed such as in Lacco Ameno, Cava di Succhivo etc. The subterranean hydrology of a volcanic region such as Ischia, where formations of various levels of permeability alternate in all directions and at brief intervals, is very complex and varies from one area to another.the various combinations of exogenous and marine infiltrated waters with magmatic-endo-genous waters (presence of radon and thoria as well as other elements), which are the essential prerogative of the thermal waters on Ischia, derive from this outline. Waters that are all considered to be the most radioactive in Europe. Moreover, thei chemical composition varies according to the nature of the terrane. One can distinguish between chlotride-sodium waters with about 75 springs in the territories of Ischia Porto, Lacco Ameno and Casamicciola, and bicarbonate-alkaline waters with about 20 springs in Casamicciola and Barano. The difference in composition and temperature allows for various clinical applications and the current thermal estabilishments definitely possess a therapeutic specialization in relation to the different qualities of the waters and are consumed on a national and international level. Even from the brief abovementioned notes, it can be seen that through the particular charachteristics assumed by tourist development with the estabilishment of curative thermalism. Known since ancient times and relaunched during the nineteenth century among the elite, the activities connected to the exploitation of hydrothermal resources have recently become a decisive factor in the Island’s economic, social and settlement transformation.
In particular, it was during the sixties that the tourist industry was identified as a valid alternative to the old agricultural economy, which was in a regressive phase, as well as the new strong point of local development. Consequently, the monoculture of thermalism gradually substituted that of thermalism gradually substituted that of vineyard cultivation. The first tourist incentives launched on a national and international level were focused in Lacco Ameno and Ischia Porto where large thermal centres, residential hotels and thermal parks based on the principle of open air thermalism were created. Soon, the processes extended to the western and southern side of the Island, in coastal areas with a high panoramic quotient and entrepreneurial activities aimed at satisfying the needs of the masses continued to increase. The success of seaside tourism in answer to parallel needs along with the tremendous development of holiday houses and development building in general, interwoven with the expansion of thermalism, contributed to activate consistent and widespread processes of territory consumption that can easily be seen in the settling, landscape and environmental structure; a structure that runs the risk of touring the Island into an immense anonymous periphery.
Therefore, if it is true that tourism represent an important and indisputable factor for Ischia’s economic and social wellbeing, it is also true that due to its specific charachterist, it is having a considerable effect on the territorial context where it takes place. In fact, it generates an unrestrainable transformation process, which tends to cancel any diversity and makes for a banal and stereotyped environment, inclined to reproducing urban conditions. It can even be said that banalization, that is, the loss of specificness and environmental qualities, which is afflicting the island is a direct effect, on a systemic level, of a particular type of “pollution”: that produced by a type of tourism which is becoming more and more standardized and invasive, risking the determined its presence on the territory in the first place, therefore ultimately risking its own destructions.

GEOLOGY
The eruptive and tectonic history of the Island of Ischia is very complex and the surveyed age of its volcanic materials dates back to 150,000 years ago. Volcanic activity on the island of Ischia includes two distinct cycles: the first developed between 150,000 and 75,000 years ago and the second cycle started with the great eruption that generated the green tuff of Mount Epomeo and is characterized by consistent vertical activity are the volcanic-tectonic phenomena and those connected with the action of exogenous agents, the effects of which translate into the erosion, transportation and sedimentation of melted pyroclastic materials. The most commonly accepted hydrogeological model provides the existence of two basic superimposed tables: the lower on is fed by the ingression of seawater, therefore having a high saline content, and is delimited above by a concave surface that faces upwards; the other is nourished by rain water, which contain less minerals and “floats” on the previous one due to its lower destinity and is delimited above by a convex surface, since it thickens as it departs from the coast and heads towards the internal part of the island. The area of contact between the two is charachterised by a diffusion belt where the waters assume an intermediate chemism. The thickness of this belt varies form area to area and can even vary in the same area during the year. These variations are due to the different intensity of rainfall. Maximum rainfall takes place through conduction (transfer of heat on contact between the waters and the hot acquifer rocks), but especially by convention, following the circulatory montions through the reticule of fissures (divergent faults fractures) triggered by thermal imbalances.

DERMOCOSMETICS
The aim of modern thermal medicine is not only to cure the body of its diseases and from serious or less serious illnesses but also to help find a psychological-physical balance, recovering the aesthetic dimension of the treatments. From this viewpoint, the thermal waters become an active principal of cosmetic products: in fact, the trace elements abundant in the salsobro-miodic and sulphurous waters of the Green Island explain numerous beneficial effects on skin trophism both directly and indirectly (through the products elaborated from the thermal waters by the so called bioglee – algae and bacteria) with a keratopltsti,keratolytic, sebum-regulating, anti-edrmi-genic and antiseptic activity. The action of the active principles in the thermal waters to fulfilled both in the skin, where it facilitates cellular replacement (keratoplastic and keratolytic activity), and on the derma, where it regulates the micro-circle and the synthesis of collagen and elastin (renovating and -edemigenic action).
The thermal waters and the derived cosmetic products also seem to play an important role in the maintenance of the microbiological skin balance (antimirobic action) both by favouring cellular regeneration, and hence the skin’s entirely, and by modulating the immunitary system’s activity, providing a positive overall effect, on the “skin micro-ecosystem”.
The cosmetic products elaborated from the thermal waters of Ischia therefore constitute an extraordinary instrument not only for combating the inevitable phenomena of skin ageing but also to restore beauty and wellbeing to stress abused skin.

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
During the ten-year period from 1988 to 1998, 83 thermal estabilishments located near springs and wells that are important to the water circulation plan were monitored. The samples were drawn periodically in the communes of Casamicciola (22 thermal estabilishments), Forio (17 thermal estabilishments), Serrara Fontana (7 thermal estabilishments), Lacco Ameno (7 thermal estabilishments) and Barano (2 thermal estabilishments).
The analysis concerned the determination of the main chemical-physical parameters (temperature, pH and electric conductibility) and that of a large series of anions and cations.
The concentration of of cations was determined through a spectrophotometry of atomic absorption, that of the anions through ionic chromatography and that of the silica through the colorimetric method. It was found that the subterranean waters of the island vary greatly and are generally characterised by: temperatures between 18 and 90°C; an electric counductibility between 841 and 56000 mS/cm; high levels of alkali and silica (up to about 600 mg/l), the latter being typical of subterranean water circuits in volcanicpotassium rocks. Four water groups were recognised: bicarbonate – calcium; bicarbonate-alkaline; transitional waters; sulphate-chlorate- alkaline; directly connectable to the geological-volcanic model of the Island.

THERAPIES
The main diseases treated in Ischia:
Locomotory Appratus
Degenerative artropathy (all osteoarthrosis manifestations), chronic inflammatory rheumathism in the quiescent phase and their results, articular gout and ureic atrophaty myositis, fibrosis, myalgia, nevralgia, periarthritis, functional recovery of limb lesion following orthopaedic operations, algodisthophic syndrome.
Crenotherapic tecniquest: balneotherapy, fangotherapy in individual baths or collective pools with special baths (hydromassages etc.)
Biological effects of fangobalneotherapy:
Anti-infalmmatory action, antalgic action, maiorelaxing action, increased resistance to pathogenic noxe, metabolic effects on general coenesthesia.
Respiratory apparatus
Diseases of the respiratory apparatus and orl: chronic, recurring, and atrophic rhinitis and sinusitis, chronic pharyngitis and laryngitis, athphic and hypertrophic adenoiditis and chronic tonsillitis, rhinogenous deafness, chronic bronchitis, bronchial asthma Crenotherapic techniques: inhalations therapies (inhalations, serosol, humages) nasal irrigations, endotimpanic insufflations, anthotherapy.
Biological effect of inhalation therapies and orl: anti-inflammatory action, antiseptic action, decongestant and detergent action.

DERMATOLIGIA
Dermatological pathologies, eczema and eczematose dermatosis in general, pruring dermatosis in general, pruring dermatosis in general, seborrheic dermatosis, acne, folliculitis, cellulite treatment, psioriasis.
Crenotherapic techniques: baths showers Biological effects of dermatological therapies: anti-nflammatory action, antiseptic scrubbing action, regulation of the skin circle.

THERMAL SPRINGS
Tht Niliodi Spring
Located in Buonopane-Tel. 340 382 9770
Opening Hours: all year from 7:00 to sun-set. Unhand’ fee: 4 euros (3 euros for residents) and 1 euro lor towel rentals. The Nitrodi Spring is renowned to islanders and tourists who frequent the Island for its therapeutic qualities, The water of the Nitrodi Spring is classified as medium level mineral water (bicarbonate-sulphate and alkaline-earthy) and hypothermal. Amongst the main components are: sodiam, calcium, potassium, chlorine, Sulphur, Sulphur and carbon.
At the mouth of the spring, located in a town caled Buonopane in the municipality of Barano, there can be found a small thermal bath establishment which allows visitors to take advantage of the medicinal properties of these waters. A large number of islander head to the spring to cure wounds, arthrois, rheumatisms and even to bottle some water or simply drink it. The properties of the water of Nitrodi:
-it favors and regulate diuresis
– it improves the function of the kidneys
– it hat marked properties to prevent uric acid
– it is effective in pratical prevent of arthfopathics
– it resolves or improves gastritis and gastroduodenitis (the water has a dual function: it reduces hyperchloridia and increases hyperchloridia)
– it is excellent in controlling gastroduodenal ulcers
– it possesses trophy-healing qualities at the cutaneous-mucous level
– it heals ulcers from varices, wounds, fistulae, boils etc.
– it makes the skin healthy, pure, smooth and shinky

The Nilrodi Spring in 1588
The Nitrodi Spring. A passage from the
book “De’ Rimed Naturali che sono nelI’isola di Pithecusa oggi detta Ischia-
by Gulio lasolino, published in 1588.
“a warm water which is called the Fountain
of Nitrodi and is born almost behind the last
part of the ‘belly’ of the great Epomeo and
giushes abundantly from rocks.
It is warm,sweet,shiny and laks unpleasant Odors.
When it cools ( it cools quicky) it is light and
for the acuteness of its substance becomes
drinktable.
Many claim thati In this fountain there is a
rather noble mine, perhaps of gold, silver, brass
or iron.
Certainly everyone has been deceived, for there is not
any metal, but sediments, or rather excrement,
which distills the very white water that
has something of a salty taste which one doesn’t taste at first.

It is probably for this reason that the ancients gave the name Nitrosi to this fountain a diminutive derived from Nitre.
The water is not lacky in purity and is very good for the table, for cooking foods and for mixing with wine.
The inhabitants of the town use the water in many other ways and for other needs whenever they wont sweet water and anything similar to it.
The citizens of the hamlet of Barano and other nighbouring places owe a lot just to this water has it is a rare and singular example of naturally warm waters.
I belive it becomes warm when it passes over stones under which surfur burns.
If the water smells tasted like surfur, has it passes for a long stretch over sweet land, almost has if retorting, it loses the surfur smell and taste.
This water is refreshing, it keeps the boowels under control and it takes care of everything that it can.
In can be a bath of sweet water and is drinkable.
The women who habitually wash clothes in it and use it for other needs benefit from it; such women are beautiful and keep their bodies healtly.
This water is most usefull to doughters and children when they drink it and use it in the washroom.
The hamlet is small yet partially for the peasantness of the place and air, and partially for the waters, it has many old man over ninety years of age.
This shouldn’t be a wonder, for trought the islan the men and women live a long time.
This place certainly surpasses all other place.

THE OLMITELLO SPRING
This spring is accessible all year long. Entry is free forw charge. One can reach this spring from the Maronti beach, in the beach wall there is an opening which is the Cava di Olmitello. The preciuose water of this spring gushes 300m away. The Olmitello is the natural cosatal extention of the curative Nitrodi Spring. The path to reach the spring was sculpted ower the centuries by the flowing water; it unravels itself in a gorge amoungs clear flanks of tuff.
Its mineral water (bicarbonate – sulphate – alkaline) is endowed with particular diuretic properties. Since it is quite light, besides being used has bathing water it is also always used drinking water.
The very first valid, preliminary investigation on the Olmitello was conducted in 1958 by B.Messina. Doctor Giulio Jasolino spooke about it in the following manner: “… not far away … is the famous Olmitello Valley, named as such by the two healty baths which gush of water and posses the same name…”.
Jasolino then emphasized in his work the name of the fountain which was acquired thanks to the cures which occurred there and rendered it famous. The water is classified as endowed with marvelous vrtues; warm water, sweet and noble; it heals arthritis, soothes the stomak and assists in alleviating the paind associated with gallstones, it helps the eyes, palpitations and fewers and it helps get read of the frequent and painfull sensation of the need to defecate and urinate.
Its properties; it stimulates diuresis in proves in hepatic functions, it as clear antiuric properties, is effective in gastritis and gastroduodenitis, and in the past it was used in problem related to the rhinopharynx.

THE FUMAROLE OF SANT’ANGELO
The fumarole can be reached on foot from Sant’Angelo by following a road designated for pedestrians which connects the town of the Maronti beach in only 10 minutes. If desired, there is also a taxi service available by sea which departs from Sant’Angelo’s port. An ecologically – friendly shuttle service his available from the taxi zone. A few steps from Sant’Angelo and from the thermal gardens Aphrodite Apollon, in one of the warmer thermal flanks of the island, in a small section of the Maronti beach, spews for centuries the breath of the Tifeo from the depths of the ground. This is a most interesting phenomenon resulting from the volcanic activity of Ischia: the fumarole. From the ground in this area a great thermal energy emanates and produce clouds of vapour in the external atmosphere and bubbles of gas in the ocean at about 100°C, observable with a submarine mask a few meters from the shore. You can even you this if you approach the with rocks positioned on the boiling sand, walking by at a safe distance. Since the times of the Romans, the warm sand was used to cure body painds through sasnd – baths – a pallet is dugh with one’s and hands, one lies down and covers the whole body with sand leaving only the head out. Over the course of the centuries this thermal water had many uses, the heat being used even for culinary needs. In fact, for an unforgettable night under a star-lit sky with good company one can cook chicken, potatoes and eggs wrapped in aluminum foil under the ground of the fumarole at 100°C.
Of course, everything is self-made: you buy the chicken and seasonings, have a kilogram of salf hand, aluminum foil, wrap everything a up and cook it at 100 under the sands the fumarole; an hour later evrithing is ready!
During the warmer periods while waiting for everything to be cooked, it is obligatory to bathe under the moonlight and then lie on the warm sand to observe the stars and taste a excellent wine of the island.

THE SORGETO BAY
Forio – Panza
This a beach with pebbles and thermal springs be careful not to scald yourself on the water line! This beach is accessible from the center of Panza via a street that is approximately 1 kilometer long on foot or by car. From Sant’angelo one can reach the beach with the convenient taxiboat. Sorgeto is a cove, the location of a true outdoor thermal park. Boiling fountains and minerals saunas and therapeutic vapors, this is what Mother Nature wanted to give the island of Ischia in remote times and today it is available for free for all those who are looking for a place to reinvigorate them selves from theily stress and hardship. It is accessible both by see and on foot via a steep ramp of stairs that leave from the village of Panza. It is a true relief to let oneself go to that mixture of warm – cold, sweet – soult water and to taste one of the most marvelous sunset that one cold ever imagine.
Be careful, thogh! Its rocks and stones are at times boiling hot! In one of the little basins from which waters buble, the islanders cook eggs, potatoes and seafood, a custom that most certainly his repeated century after century as is evidenced by the archeological findings discovered in this area.
The most faschinating charachteristic of Sorgeto is bathing at night in the warm water under the stars.
One can relax as one spens unforgettable moments here. The mild temperatures ar present here even in the winter and therefore allow fore one to tan and bathe even in the coldest weather!