Medical Weight Loss & Wellness Retreat in San Marino

Your first day is mostly consultations. Guests arrive and are seen by the medical team for an initial visit, after which blood tests are taken so the doctors can work out your lipid profile and the 'Fat Profile' that everything else is built on. Once those results are in, a diet is drawn up for you individually — calorie-controlled but built around legumes, fibre, fruit and vegetables, with no animal fats and ingredients used in season.

Days settle into a rhythm after that. Mornings typically start with breakfast prepared to your diet plan, followed by a physical activity session arranged with your personal trainer — usually walking in the historic centre or the surrounding hills, with gym-based work where it suits you. Massages and beauty treatments (face and body) are scheduled through the week and are part of the programme rather than add-ons. Lunch and dinner are cooked by the centre's chefs to the doctors' indications.

What separates this from a standard spa weight-loss week is that the food and the treatments come out of the same medical file. The herbs, decoctions and actifluids used alongside your diet are identified by the centre's herbalists for your particular case, and much of the produce — vegetables and legumes in particular — comes from the family's own Podere Lesignano farm on the hills above San Marino. If you're vegetarian, vegan or coeliac, the medical staff and chefs work your diet around that from the outset.

The location is genuinely odd and lovely. San Marino is a 61-square-kilometre republic on the slopes of Monte Titano, and the centre sits on Viale Antonio Onofri in the historic centre. You can walk to the Guaita and Cesta towers, and evenings under the medieval walls at La Terrazza are part of the experience. It's a mountain setting with coastal views on a clear day — the Adriatic is roughly half an hour downhill.

Because everything is prescribed, the week is a medical appointment as much as a holiday. You'll have follow-up visits to check how the plan is going, and the diet and treatments are adjusted as you go. Guests who want to keep going after they leave can arrange to continue with the team.

What's included

- Accommodation at the Grand Hotel San Marino, Titano Hotel or Titano Suites - Initial medical consultation and blood tests - Personal 'Fat Profile' assessment - Individual calorie-controlled diet plan - Meals cooked by the chefs to the medical team's indications - Herbal teas, decoctions and actifluids selected for you - Physical activity programme with a personal trainer - Massages and face/body aesthetic treatments per your programme - Follow-up medical reviews during the stay - Closing consultation with a take-home plan

What's not included

- Travel to and from San Marino - Airport transfers - Travel insurance - Alcoholic drinks and bar extras - Additional treatments beyond your programme - Personal expenses and souvenirs - Tips and gratuities