A stone terrace decorated with sunflowers, surrounded by the wooded slopes of the Sabina mountains. Vineyards and olive trees, ancient castles and streets of a village that does not know what a car is - the legendary beauty of Tuscany and Umbria. And we are just 50 km from Rome.
Opposite us is Lucy in a one-on-one Hatha yoga lesson. She teaches us Asanas and Pranayamas (breathing exercises) that purify the body and prepare the mind for meditation. We suck in the perfumed air and then keep it in for a few seconds. Our eyes are closed, the spirit is concentrated on a 'now' that remains unchanged for centuries. It is true that when the private lesson with Lucy ends we feel our bodies ten times more flexible and our minds clean and purified.
But there are other things we can do to feel good. For example, we could do a healing Chakra Balancing and then give in to our vanity that demands that we treat ourselves with aloe. We could bathe in sulphur springs in the absolute silence of nature, or alternatively in the privacy of a thousand-year old cave that has been transformed into a luxury bathing center. We could go for riding in the mountains. We couldeat wild mushrooms and panzanella with fresh basil and biological olive oil from the mountains of Sabina. And at night we will sleep in the white, boutique bedroom, of a 13th century stone house.