After a day of hiking through the chestnut forests of Valle Ellero, or carving through the ski slopes of Artesina, there is nothing quite like sinking into a steaming wood-fired hot tub with the Ligurian Alps all around you. This is the kind of warmth you can't find in a wellness centre: raw, natural, honest.

Our wood-burning hot tub heats slowly, the way good things do. You light the fire, you breathe the mountain air, you wait. By the time you step in, the water is perfectly hot and the silence of the Occitan hills has already done half the work. Available every season, and utterly magical in winter, when snow settles on the surrounding forests and steam rises into the cold Alpine sky.