Palazzo Fiuggi – a palazzo reborn

There are hotels that breathe history. And then there is the Palazzo Fiuggi Wellness Medical Retreat – a building in which history does not merely whisper, but materialises in every detail: in the handmade Murano glass chandeliers dating from 1913, in the Art Nouveau frescoes painted across its ceilings, in the Carrara marble floors and original parquet that have survived more than a century of upheaval.

Palazzo Fiuggi – known until 2019 as the Grand Hotel Palazzo della Fonte – opened in 1913 as the most magnificent hotel in Europe, the first on the continent to feature a private swimming pool. Kings and popes stayed here, Picasso and D’Annunzio drank its tea, Ingrid Bergman and Anthony Quinn took their rest in its salons. Then came decline, closure and decades of dormancy – followed by a renaissance that has few parallels in European luxury hospitality.

Following a multi-year restoration and the construction of a 6,000 m² wellness and medical centre at a total investment of over €49 million, Palazzo Fiuggi reopened in 2021 under a new name and a new philosophy. The result is Italy’s most ambitious medical wellness retreat: a place where five-star luxury and credible, science backed medical healthcare converge in uniquely compelling fashion.

Ownership & the Forte Village Group

The short answer to the question of whether Palazzo Fiuggi and Forte Village share the same ownership is an unambiguous yes. Palazzo Fiuggi is part of the Forte Village Collection and is majority owned by the same shareholders as the Forte Village Resort in Sardinia.

Lorenzo Giannuzzi has a deeply personal history with Palazzo Fiuggi: he was director of the then-named Grand Hotel Palazzo della Fonte from 1988 to 1992. Decades later – as CEO of Forte Village in Sardinia – he acquired the Palazzo at auction in 2019 and transformed it into the medical wellness retreat he had always envisioned within its walls. The concept of placing Fiuggi’s world-renowned healing waters at the heart of a medically rigorous wellness programme had been developing in his mind for more than thirty years.

The three properties of the Collection complement one another elegantly: Forte Village for beach, family, sport and pleasure; Palazzo Doglio for urban sophistication in Sardinia’s capital; Palazzo Fiuggi for deep medical regeneration and serious cures. Many guests now combine a stay at Forte Village with a subsequent programme at Palazzo Fiuggi – a natural two-act sequence of holiday and restoration.

Location: Fiuggi & the Lazio region

Fiuggi is a small spa town in the Lepini Mountains of the Lazio region, approximately 80 kilometres south-east of Rome, situated at an altitude of around 750 metres above sea level. The name has been synonymous with healing waters and therapeutic stays in Italy for centuries – a reputation akin to that of Baden-Baden or Bad Homburg in the German speaking world. The mountain setting produces a climate markedly cooler and cleaner than Rome: fresh mountain air, a landscape of woodland, vineyards and olive groves, and a silence that guests from urban environments find physically restorative in its own right.

Palazzo Fiuggi sits directly at the edge of Fiuggi’s medieval old town, on a gently elevated plateau looking out over the valley and its own parkland. The 8-hectare garden park surrounding the building is one of the finest historic hotel parks in central Italy – ancient cypresses, holm oaks, olive trees and subtropical plantings create a microclimate that begins working on guests the moment they step outside.

History – a building that witnessed a century

The history of Palazzo Fiuggi is the history of a building that has mirrored the arc of European history in every decade of its existence – as the most glamorous meeting point on the continent, as a wartime hospital, as a royal summer residence, as a retreat for film stars and politicians, and now as a pioneer of the modern medical wellness movement.

The healing waters of Fiuggi – a gift from the mountains

The water of Fiuggi is the cornerstone of the entire Palazzo Fiuggi concept – and its therapeutic reputation predates the hotel by several centuries. In the Middle Ages, the sick travelled from across Europe to drink from Fiuggi’s springs. Pope Boniface VIII is said to have been cured of kidney stones by Fiuggi water in the 13th century. Michelangelo, who suffered from kidney ailments throughout his life, reportedly described it as his only medicine.

Fiuggi water originates from rainwater that percolates for decades through the rock layers of the Lepini Mountains, becoming enriched with specific minerals and organic compounds along the way. It is extraordinarily low in mineral content (total dissolved solids approx. 120 mg/l – compared to around 1,100 mg/l for San Pellegrino), mildly acidic (pH 6.6–7.0), and contains specific compounds that are scientifically proven to support the dissolution of kidney stones and the detoxification of the urinary tract.

The Spa & Medical Centre – 6,000 square metres

The spa at Palazzo Fiuggi is not a wellness amenity attached to a hotel – it is the beating heart of a medical retreat. Across 6,000 m², with a total construction investment exceeding €49 million, Italy’s most advanced medical spa facilities have been created within and around the historic Palazzo. Every arriving guest undergoes a full medical assessment on arrival – regardless of the programme they have booked – and is assigned a personal wellness coach who accompanies them throughout their stay.

Retreat programmes & cures

Palazzo Fiuggi offers structured, medically supervised programmes – not hotel wellness packages with a few massages, but genuine therapeutic cures with a scientific foundation and individual medical oversight throughout. The recommended minimum stay is seven nights; a three-night introductory stay is also possible. The medical team recommends 7–14 days for meaningful and lasting results.

Rooms & Suites in the historic Palazzo

The 102 rooms and suites of Palazzo Fiuggi marry historic heritage with contemporary comfort. The restoration preserved what matters most: the handmade Murano glass chandeliers, original parquet floors, Art Nouveau windows and the extraordinary ceiling frescoes and trompe-l’œil paintings that have survived more than a century. Contemporary furnishings in a palette ranging from steel blue to ochre and Pompeian red have been added – each room has its own colour world and individual character.

All rooms and suites look out over either the 8-hectare park or the historic town of Fiuggi. The Royal Suite (135 m²) – with Murano glass chandeliers and a 145 m² terrace – is the very apartment in which King Vittorio Emanuele III signed Italy’s First World War mobilisation order in 1914. The Presidential Suite offers a 160 m² terrace with panoramic views across the Lepini Mountains.

The Villa Luisa – a separate building within the estate – is available exclusively as a whole-property booking, with a dedicated private chef, butler and nightly dinner service. Ideal for families, groups or guests who wish to combine maximum privacy with the full Palazzo Fiuggi experience. Transfers between the Villa and the main building are available on request.

Heinz Beck – haute cuisine in service of health

Heinz Beck is one of Italy’s most celebrated chefs – despite being German by birth. His restaurant La Pergola at the Rome Cavalieri Waldorf Astoria was the first hotel restaurant in Italy to be awarded three Michelin stars, and it remains one of the country’s finest tables. Beck has been responsible for the entire culinary concept at Palazzo Fiuggi since its reopening.

What distinguishes Beck’s approach at Palazzo Fiuggi is its purposefulness. This is not a showpiece kitchen that happens to align with wellness – it is a rigorously calibrated therapeutic nutrition programme that simultaneously functions at the highest gastronomic level. The 1,240-calorie diet underpinning the Optimal Weight programme – developed by Beck in close collaboration with the property’s medical team – is calorically precise and gastronimically convincing in equal measure: a breakfast of egg-white omelette, wholemeal toast and house-made strawberry jam; a three-course dinner including hay-cooked free-range chicken with mushrooms and parsnip.

The Tisaneria – the herbal tea room – is another defining feature of the Palazzo Fiuggi experience. There is no coffee here, no wine on the menu: instead, herbal infusions following Benedictine tradition, individually composed according to each guest’s needs and the programme they are following. For many arrivals it requires adjustment; for most by the end of their stay it has become one of the more liberating discoveries of their time at Fiuggi.

Combining Forte Village & Palazzo Fiuggi

Many guests of the Forte Village Collection discover a natural two-act travel sequence: one week of pleasure, sport and beach at Forte Village Resort in Sardinia – followed by one week of medically supervised restoration at Palazzo Fiuggi. The two properties complement one another in a way that no single hotel can replicate alone.

This combination is far more than a luxury holiday. It is a complete health and regeneration programme housed within two of Italy’s most extraordinary properties – two weeks after which guests return home not merely rested, but genuinely changed.

Getting there & practical information