It’s a blazing September afternoon and I’m bobbing in 95-degree Fahrenheit hot springs. I’m not in a bathhouse but in a naturally formed sea pool on the shoreline of the Italian island Ischia. I swim farther out into the open water where the temperatures are deliciously cool, before returning to the pool’s balmy embrace closer to shore, repeating the process over and over again until my muscles and mind go slack.
This volcanic island, rising from the Tyrrhenian Sea like a primordial slumbering giant and about an hour by ferry from Naples, is one of Italy’s oldest wellness destinations. Its network of natural hot springs have enticed people since antiquity.
