Alpine Bootcamp and Mountain Adventure Retreat in Italy

Prati Piani sits at about 700 metres in the mountains behind the Ligurian coast, near the village of Carpasio in the province of Imperia. The property is a former farm estate with several buildings — a farmhouse, a villa, a barn conversion and smaller houses — and it has been used as a training camp since the 1970s, when Inter Milan came here for winter conditioning. A Dutch outfit called BootcampTeam now runs bootcamp weeks here, and this four-day programme is their eighth season at the site. The training is outdoors and uses whatever the land provides. That means hill sprints, carrying and flipping the wood blocks and tree trunks lying around the estate, and circuits built from the team's equipment: auto wheels (tractor tyres), TRX suspension trainers, ropes and similar. Sessions run about 75 minutes. You do one before breakfast and another later in the day, so you're training twice daily on most days. It isn't a gym-based programme — there's no air-conditioned fitness suite here, and the ground is uneven. The hiking is a real part of the week, not a walk to fill time. Day one has a mountain hike after lunch. Day two another. Day four finishes with the hike from Carpasio to Glori. Day three swaps the hike for a bike ride along the coast at San Remo, with lunch in town before the evening bootcamp session back at the estate. Because the group is small and the estate is self-contained, most of the four days happen on foot from your room. You eat at the property — breakfast, lunch and a three-course dinner most nights — and the only transfer you need is the one to and from Nice Côte d'Azur airport, which is included. That airport run is about an hour and a half each way. The programme is priced per person based on a double room, with a single-room supplement if you want your own space. Typical guests are adults who already train and want a week that combines that with walking in the Alps. The days are full but not rushed: wake up, train, eat, hike, eat, train, eat, sleep. If you want a spa week, this isn't it. If you want to be outside and moving from morning to night, it is.

What's included

- 4 nights accommodation at Prati Piani - 4x breakfast - 4x lunch - 3x three-course dinner - Daily bootcamp sessions (twice daily on most days) - Guided mountain hikes - Bike ride along the San Remo coast - Transfer from and to Nice Côte d'Azur Airport - Welcome package - Drinks (fair use policy)

What's not included

- Flights - Travel insurance - Single room supplement (€100) - Personal expenses - Drinks outside the fair use policy