A New Spa Arrives At ‘The World’s Best Hotel’

Crowned the number one hotel in the world on the inaugural 50 Best Hotels list, Italy’s Passalacqua gets even better with a new spa.

There’s no shortage of highlights at Passalacqua, the meticulously restored 24-room boutique hotel on Lake Como, landing the top spot on The World’s 50 Best Hotels 2023 list. First, there is the lakeside location, off the village of Moltrasio in one of the world’s most iconic vacation destinations, Lago di Como. Then, there is the 18^th-century estate itself, made up of three preserved historic edifices and tiered manicured gardens, sprawling down the hillside almost directly into the lake. Next comes that pool: a parasol-trimmed dream of sparkling blue water. And finally, the 24 rooms, each a jewel box, opulently dressed in silk, pastels and marble.

Now, there’s something else to praise: a new spa. Opening at the start of the 2024 season, the new spa can be accessed from the ground floor of the hotel’s former stables, called the Palazz, which is tucked behind the main Villa and also houses several guestrooms on the first floor. Here, guests will find the main spa reception, as well as a relaxation room: a high-ceiled columned space outfitted with rattan peacock chairs, daybeds, and metalwork lanterns, made by Yahya in Morocco, throwing patterned light across the room. From here, spa guests are escorted into the hotel’s original underground tunnels, which run all the way to the Lake and were perhaps once used for a quick escape. The exposed-brick tunnel hallways—atmospherically lit with hanging globe lanterns and continuing all the way down to the lake—first lead to subterranean, amber-lit treatment rooms, as well as a sauna and ice bath in a barrel-vaulted opening. Then, the tunnels eventually feed out to an indoor pool in a greenhouse, overlooking one of the terraced gardens.

Treatments at the spa use Seed to Skin, a Tuscan-based skincare line that comes from the lauded boutique hotel Borgo San Pietro, once a healing stopover for medieval pilgrims on Via Francigena. Passionate about wellness, the 230-acre estate formed its own fully natural Seed-to-Skin brand in 2018, using ingredients grown onsite including raw herbs and botanicals like lavender, mint, rosemary, marigold and lemon balm; as well as fresh milk from Borgo’s own flock of Sardinian sheep and raw honey from the estate’s bees. Essential oils are distilled onsite in a distilling house, though some ingredients come from further afield including Morocco and France. However, the brand always collaborates with small, quality producers, sure to control the supply chain. Whatever new materials they get in, they use within the year for ultimate potency. Seed to Skin even has its own laboratory (just a short walk from the hotel) where products are developed and packaged, and Borgo’s owner Jeanette Thottrup is very involved, invested and one might even say obsessed (for example, one face cream took over five year to develop). Now, there are around 35 total products on the market with more being developed including a sunscreen.

Seed to Skin Tuscany is growing in popularity all around the world, especially in hotel spas. Currently, the product line can be found in over 100 spas, including at Mandarin Oriental Mayfair; Hotel Sacher Vienna; Canyon Ranch in California; Six Senses in Rome, and of course, Passalaqua.

The signature treatment at Passalaqua’s spa is the 90-minute Reverse Signature Facial, which includes oxygen therapy via Seed to Skin hero product The Black Magic, which Thottrup calls “a facial in a jar;” extra potent with salicylic acid, hibiscus flower acid and mandelic acid. Then there is a double mask, using Seed to Skin’s The Golden Dew and The Active Delivery Mantle.

Other treatments include the 90-minute Unwind Therapy (using mineral mud and Seed to Skin’s The Bath Therapy oil and including a jade-comb scalp massage) and the 60-minute Candle Massage, which uses warm massage candle oil infused with argan oil, coconut extract, shea butter, oud and vanilla essence.