Grottamiranda: The Rise of a Wellness Naturist Resort in Italy

It’s been seven years since we first visited Grottamiranda Naturist Resort in southern Italy and… just as we’re writing this, we’re getting an extreme déja vu… We’ve been writing this blog for pretty much a decade now, talking about all the places we’re visiting, and more and more, we find ourselves back to places we’ve been to before.

Some of them haven’t changed a bit. But that’s absolutely not the case at Grottamiranda…

Back in June 2019, we rang their bell for the first time. Pierre popped his head over the fence to check if it was who they were expecting, and seconds later, the gate opened, and Martine would stand in the middle of the driveway giving us a warm welcome.

Even at a resort that’s continuously trying to improve, some details never change. We would see the exact same scene when we returned in 2021 and once again just a few weeks ago. Back in the day, we had no idea what to expect. Our only previous naturist experience in Italy had been at campground Costalunga, far up north in the country, but now we were arriving somewhere in a completely different category.

With 13 studios, Grottamiranda is too large to be called a guesthouse and still too small to be a hotel. The appropriate name of a resort like this is a “boutique hotel”. A “small, stylish hotel that offers a unique design, personalised service, and a distinctive atmosphere often reflecting its local culture or theme” (as ChatGPT kindly described it to us).

Stylish and unique? Absolutely. Every room has typical southern Italian touches, and many even have limestone walls. Personalised service? Well, when both owners welcome you at the gate, “personalised” might even be an understatement.

But they probably stand out most in the department of distinctive atmospheres and culture. On one hand, there’s the Italian culture popping up everywhere, from the design and architecture to the food and drinks. And then there’s the naturist culture, requiring spaces where people can be their naked selves in all comfort. At Grottamiranda, it all blends seamlessly together.

Throughout the years, we’ve seen Grottamiranda grow. At first, it was mostly mentally. We met Martine and Pierre when they were only one year in business. They had started a concept that was pretty rare in the naturist world but had full confidence that it would succeed. They were right.

Only two years later, you had to book months in advance if you wanted to get your hands on a room in the high season. The resort ran smoothly and organised, there was staff, there were activities and excursions, communal dinners here and there, and more and more guests considered this their happy place. One they would return to year after year.

This is the moment when resort owners typically sit back and enjoy the ride. A bit of paint here and there and maybe some new furniture for the next season, but otherwise, just let the place do its own magic. And that’s exactly what we thought would happen at Grottamiranda.

You can imagine our reaction a while ago, when we received an email from Martine and Pierre saying something in the likes of “You need to come back, our video isn’t accurate anymore. We built a wellness centre in our cave.”

Well, if you can’t imagine, our reaction was “You did WHAT?”

You see, there was a cave on their property, explaining the “grotta” in Grottamiranda. This is not so rare in this part of Italy, because of the limestone underground, but the last time we’d seen that cave it was just… well… what you’d expect from a cave. A rocky hole in the ground. During the years when we weren’t watching, they somehow had figured out how to turn it into something more than that. Much more, actually.

The video they talked about was something we were asked to put together during our visit back in 2021. We had just started vlogging, and we didn’t really know a thing about making resort videos. But we understood naturism, which was why we were considered the right people for the job. Whether that was the right choice or not is something we’ll leave up to you to decide. You can still watch that old video here.

In any case, Martine and Pierre must have thought we were, as we were asked to come back.

They had undersold their latest improvements in the email. A part of the cave had been turned into a relaxation area with bean bags, massage tables and a sauna. The other part was a brand new wine cellar where Pierre does weekly wine tastings.

Outside is a huge relaxation area with a wood-heated hot tub, a cold bath, a yoga area and its own bar. We knew that when the resort is closed during the winter, Martine and Pierre regularly travel to Belgium and the Netherlands to visit the famous nude wellness centres. When you see the new part of Grottamiranda, you realise that their getaways weren’t just to relax after a busy season. They’ve been gathering ideas.

Now one could wonder, if you have a very well-running resort, why would you go through all this hassle? (Remember, they just turned a rocky hole in the ground into a wellness centre). The answer, we believe, is that the “project” Grottamiranda is about much more than creating a successful business.

We often say that there’s no such thing as “THE naturist”. Naturism is a foundation, but on top of it are many different likes. There are beach naturists, campground naturists, luxury naturists, and also wellness naturists. Each has their own spaces and their own tribes. In Italy, however, there isn’t any space for the wellness naturist. Well… there WASN’t one.

Our most recent visit was really a mix of familiar elements (we had more drinks from the cosy bar, relaxed once again at the pool, and had yet another meat-filled dinner at the fattoria across the street) and new elements (we mentioned the cave turned into a wellness area, didn’t we?).

The brand new video can now be watched on grottamiranda.com. We hope you like it better than the first one, and if you don’t, please DO NOT tell Martine and Pierre.

Back in 2008, long before Naked Wanderings or Grottamiranda existed, we took our first steps into social nudity in a wellness centre. So it’s fair to say that an important part of us is wellness naturist too. So we’ll definitely be back here again.