«Every disease has a natural cause and can be cured by natural and recognizable means » Hippocrates 460 BC
Already 2,000 years ago, in the hydrotherapy Park Nitrodi in Buonopane, in the hamlet of Barano, were practiced what we now know as cures. They have benefited the Greeks and Romans, as the subalpine doctor, Menippo, one of the most influential, to skip to the end of the '60s, when Knight Angelo Rizzoli commissioned researches to Professor Massimo Mancioli to launch the hydroponics. After the dark ages, many have continued to tout the virtues related to these waters as Giulio Iasolino, Venancio Marone and Chevally De Rivaz.
Set like an oasis where you do not expect them, the source of Nitrodi is located in an internal town dotted with houses and greenery, two hundred feet above the sea. It is here that revives the ancient cult linked to the therapeutic waters of Ischia, as evidenced by the precious marble votive reliefs dedicated to Apollo and his Nymphs, kept in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, and that it is possible to observe close thanks to a few casts at Villa Arbusto in Lacco Ameno.
A large glass and ceramics depicting nymphs show the ancient mouths that rest on stone carvings, which date back to the pre-Roman period. From the source down copious water, approximately 12 000 liters per hour, without undergoing any chemical and physical treatment, pumped only to be distributed to the showers.
There are many customers that run from April to November the long staircase that leads to the cul -de- sac at the entrance of the park, there is talk of more than 16 thousand visitors a year.
At Nitrodi there is no pretense to amaze with water games, Olympic swimming pools, invigorating and modern whirlpool: to embrace the entrance to the solarium, changing rooms, showers and therapeutic sessions for localized water jets, there is the garden created five years ago to bring back to life what the Romans called "sacred grove". Thanks to the engineering nature, visitors will enjoy the landscape perched and articulated terraces, redesigned with a path lined by aromatic plants, mostly Mediterranean ones, and from indications, such as the "flow of Youth” ,which promise to be on the right "way".
Thanks to aromatherapy and phytotherapy, in fact, you can fight and prevent various diseases of the respiratory system is that the basic metabolism.
During the visit you may encounter, wrapped in his bathrobe pause, even the director, Giuseppe Di Meglio, who will certainly be hospitable to tell the stories of healings, curiosities and anecdotes that bind many people to this place. It is just him to show how to rub hands on the plant rosemary and massaging the chest, from the bottom up, as invigorating, revitalizing, tonic, while a little more in the thymus, inhaled, and it is useful, explains to the respiratory tract. Do not miss even the sage rubbed on the teeth that sanitizes the oral cavity.
The water of Nitrodi is portentous, has healing quality in skin, ideal to treat all inflammations of the gastrointestinal tract. It is a water rich in bicarbonate that can help digestion and regulates uric acid. No wonder, therefore, if too many people take it with canisters at home to drink it on a daily basis, they are often required to make even the tourists away.
A typical day, until sunset, spends fast. It basks in the sun to dry, as recommended, including a shower and the other with a warning not to use shampoos and other chemicals. Those who wish can pamper themselves with facials and body, acupuncture and this year with Ayurvedic massages outdoors, in a panoramic pitches that will be set up on the occasion.
To quench your thirst in a wooden kiosk, you will find the cup of Nitrodi, a personalized ceramic in Ischia, where you will pay wellness cocktails made with ingredients to "kilometer zero", captured by Pasquale, the barman, just before ending up in the centrifuge.
While the guests attending the wedding of Ischia Honey, lemon, mint and aloe gel, which enrich the already rich water of Nitrodi, we observe Pasquale entertain them with a smile and a few jokes. It is interesting to know that before you start this job preparing excellent Martini Cocktail, Negroni Sbagliati and superalcoliche bombs. His vocation has changed totally and is met by these therapeutic infusions dedicated to Apollo and his Nymphs. Nothing is invented or improvised, combinations have been studied by Professor Giuseppe Sollino, Scientific Director of the Park.
Therefore impossible to order a beer or a Coke, it is more likely that you pause to sip a tincture of Venus or the one dedicated to Apollo, intrigued by the Rose waterfall, a Green Smoothie or rosemary granita when it gets warmer.
In Nitrodi you eat, then, you drink and you care. Next to the Elisir of Aloe, Pasquale will propose the leaves gutted by his precious gel to massage the face, but it is available to the public a line of beauty and health, along with the scent of water, prepared with Italian raw materials certified enriched primarily by water of Nitrodi.
A few summers ago, as they tell us, here came a troupe of Japanese who shot a fiction at the spa destinations in Europe, which made possible, according to the storyboard, an ugly and rich Japanese to return home beautiful and unrecognizable. If it does miracles is hard to say, everything else you can touch, so good leisure!
by Alessia Impagliazzo