Who wouldn't like to have magical powers and to live in wonderful fairy woods, at least once in a lifetime ? I have been in a place where there is a particular light, just like the one that wraps fairies in the fairy tales of the forests. It is located in the Val d'Ega, a verdant valley in the mountains of South Tyrol, which encircles Nova Ponente as an amphitheater. It is from this small village that opens a plateau, covered with forests and meadows as far as you can see, with lovely views on the mountains of the Sciliar, on the Latemar and on the Catinaccio. A show that has no equal, holding fascinating stories from the past.
In fact, the history of these places is linked with legends and myths of the past which tell about the beauty, the sweetness and the colors of the surrounding nature, together with its particular light that seems to be related to something ancestral. Here the sun rises earlier and sets later, giving breathtaking sunsets that thrill you in the deep.
I arrived here so tired for the hectic rhythms of the city, and was welcomed by the silence and peace of a green color that could look even fake for its particularly intense tone. I had the opportunity to know and visit these enchanting places being based at the Wellness & Vitalhotel Erica, perfect as a starting point and to come back after a day on and off the mountains, where to be pampered by the rich and newly renovated SPA.
After visiting the Bletterbach Gorge and being impressed - a 8 km long and 400-meter deep gorge that dates back to more than 15,000 years ago, also known as the "Alto Adige Grand Canyon", a dive into a far-away past where fossils can still be found - it was great to return back to the Hotel and try a brand new technique.
Following a traditional sauna that calms and softens because it slows down the activity of the internal organs, it is essential to cool the body to stimulate and reinvigorate it, but this process usually takes place in too aggressive and sudden ways through cold showers or tanks. Instead, the enchanting family owner of the Hotel proposes a truly innovative approach: the "snowellness", with important benefits and complementary to the traditional sauna wellness.
This unique method represents a true revolution of well-being.
In fact, the compact and fresh snow and the dry cold inside the SnowRoom allow a quick and effective but extraordinarily sweeter cooling effect, more pleasant and more healthy than traditional damp methods. The high temperature difference between the 90 ° of the sauna to the 10° of the Snowroom is better tolerated and brings a lot of benefits to the body, including a powerful detoxifying effect, a deep relaxation, an improved circulation and a muscle stimulating effect as well as oxygenation of the blood vessels.
The magical atmosphere of these places is a bit everywhere here, in those wonderful places that can be visited very easily starting from Nova Ponente, after a nice breakfast in the garden.
Like the Carezza Lake, with its fantastic colors, of which legend tells that Masaré wizard, broken in pieces by love's sufferings as not being able to take away from the lake Ondina nymph, with whom he had fallen in love, had ripped off the rainbow from the sky, destroying it in a thousand pieces and throwing it into the lake. This is the reason why even today, in the waters of the lake, all the beautiful colors of the rainbow shine, from blue to green, from red to indigo, from yellow to gold.
Or the Catinaccio massif, whose legend explains why these mountains are tinged with pink at sunset. According to this legend, King Laurino, who fell in love with Similde, the daughter of Adige's king, had a rose garden laying where today there is a glimpse of a large patch of snow enclosed in a sort of basin, visible until Spring. He raped the girl but was betrayed by the roses of his garden as they could not conceal him and he was imprisoned. So he cast a curse to the garden: neither by day nor by night any human eye could ever have admired it. But Laurino forgot the sunset and so since then the Catinaccio, both at sunset and at dawn, is colored like a garden of unmatched beauty.
In these places I perceived a high level of energy and spirituality, as witnessed by the numerous churches and chapels scattered across the valleys and the mountains.
Like the little S.Elena's church of 1100, in one of the most beautiful locations, on a verdant hill with a wonderful panoramic view, which is particularly famous because it houses one of the masterpieces of the fifteenth-century pictorial school of Bolzano and is also frescoed externally.
Or as this little chapel, which almost seems to be built on the stream of Ponte Nova and is enchantingly surrounded by a rich vegetation.
Up to the largest sanctuary in South Tyrol, the Sanctuary of Pietralba, founded in 1553, after the miraculous statuette finding, an alabaster piety, by a farmer of the place, Leonhard Weißensteiner, to whom the Virgin Mary would appear, making hime to recover him from his illness. The Madonna would have asked him to erect a little church in change. This chapel soon became widely visited, so much that it was necessary to build a larger building.
In between all the fascinating stories and legends and this sweet and pure nature, you can regain your inner harmony, also improving your physical balance in various ways. For example, biking or walking along with the many hiking tours on the mountains to discover the alpine cottages, to taste the specialties, and then to relax and even soothe some pain through the innovative technique of Australian Tom Bowen. A method that is able to activate very effectively self-healing processes, while stimulating the flow of energy and emotions, it allows the body to do the work needed to recover, simply through delicate and gentle movements performed by an operator. A technique applied within the newly refurbished Hotel Erica SPA, which makes of it an avant-garde and innovative one.
And then the indoor and the outdoor pools, in a vast waterway with hot and warm jets, to close the day in total relaxation surronded by the particular light that floods the SPA, recharging yourself so that you can fully enjoy the following day in these really special places.
After a light and healthy dinner and a good night's tea.
