Agriturismo Relais La Casina

The Relais La Casina, which the website and the company name also call Casina Ricchi, is at Via San Rocco 93 in Cavriana, in the province of Mantua, on the morainic hills south of Lake Garda. It is a pink farmstead restored among the vineyards, with a paved courtyard, centuries-old olive trees and an avenue looking at the hill of Cavriana with its bell tower and the remains of the fortress; the lake is about twenty minutes away by car, and Peschiera, Solferino and the village of Castellaro Lagusello are all nearby. The house comes from the Stefanoni family, who have been making wine with the Cantina Ricchi for three generations, and the hospitality is an extension of that work: forty hectares of vineyard, electricity from photovoltaics and heating from a boiler fed with wood chips from the pruning of the rows.

There are twelve rooms, divided between standard and superior, and each carries the name of a wine from the cellar: Brioso, Cornalino, Carpino, Casina Bianco, Casina Rosso, Le Cime, Essenza 0, Espressione 8, Meridiano, Ribò, Rosalinda and Vittorio. They are created in the body of the old farmstead, with original bricks and exposed beams, terracotta or inlaid floors, sober furnishings and windows facing the vineyards and the hills. Some rooms have a balcony over the rows.

The Wine Spa is the most carefully designed part of the house and the website describes it precisely. It has two circuits. One is the wet zone, with a sauna, a steam room, reaction showers, emotional showers, an ice fall and a relaxation area with walls of Himalayan pink salt. The other is the pool zone, with a heated salt-water pool created in the basement, under a ceiling crossed by exposed ducting and with brick columns: it is not a deep pool for sports swimming, it is a pool for a long soak. Cosmetics and treatments are vinotherapy, made with grapes from the morainic hills, and there are couples' rituals, a day spa option for those not staying overnight and a cosmetics shop. In the aerial images published by the property a second outdoor tub can also be seen on the terrace in front of the farmstead, which the website does not however describe: anyone counting on it should ask for confirmation before booking.

On admission the property leaves no room for interpretation. On its introductory page it writes that the Casina's offer and philosophy are aimed at adult guests, over sixteen years of age, and on the Wine Spa page it recalls that access to the wellness area is reserved for people from sixteen years upwards. Children are therefore not admitted, either in the rooms or in the spa, and the threshold is the same for the whole house.

Completing the picture are a restaurant with a four-course tasting menu chosen by the chef, a room for meetings and business gatherings, and the wine experience in the cellar, which is included in several packages. The packages published on the website almost always combine the night, a generous breakfast, entry to the Wine Spa and dinner, with variants that add a couples' treatment or a guided tasting.

It suits anyone who wants a quiet base between Garda and Mantua, anyone looking for a real spa in a small property and anyone keen to drink and eat where the grapes grow. It suits less anyone who wants the lake below the house or a stated and documented outdoor pool.