IF YOU LIVED in Rome some 2,000 years ago, you likely heard the shrieks drifting through the ancient streets. This was a society that preferred its limbs to look a certain way—namely, as silky smooth as a Carrara marble sculpture—and the means of achieving it weren’t for the faint of heart. During those dark times, people commonly employed attendants to tweeze, scorch, and buff away unwanted body hair and prune one’s stems to classical perfection.
Suffering for beautiful legs, it seems, is one of civilization’s oldest traditions. Indeed, it’s how I find myself sitting in a robe, waiting nervously for my treatment at the Leg School at Capri Medical Spa inside the five-star Jumeirah Capri Palace. Observing a fellow student grimace as she wades through icy cold water, I begin to question my choices.
Within minutes, a tingling sensation creeps up my calves—a result, she explains, of the 26 medicinal plants blended into the concoction, just one part of the treatment promising to target everything from swelling and water retention to uneven skin tone. She smiles, insisting the extreme cooling sensation is normal while handing me an Ayurvedic tea blended with holy basil, orange peel, and ginger. I suddenly have a flashback to the day I secretly tried my mom’s epilator, one in an array of painful hair-removal methods I attempted as a tween.
Sure, I could’ve selected a relaxing massage or facial, but Capri Medical Spa’s leg protocol has something of a reputation. Nearly a decade in the making, the program was designed by the late Francesco Canonaco (known locally as “The Professor”) in the 1990s after he noticed many women struggling with circulation issues. A loyal clientele returns year after year in pursuit of lighter, smoother, more sculpted stems, including reported alumni such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Julia Roberts.
To distract myself from my discomfort, I focus on my surroundings: lush gardens framed by white columns and the salty Mediterranean breeze floating through the gauzy drapes. Jumeirah Capri Palace, which sits nearly 1,000 feet above sea level in the quiet village of Anacapri, was designed to look like an 18th-century Neapolitan palazzo and is as serene as it gets. Unlike the see-and-be-seen atmosphere of a busy Capri town, this side of the island and the hotel’s 72 palatial rooms and suites were made for escaping the crowds.
After 20 minutes, Clara removes the mud while telling me more about its benefits. It turns out our leg-obsessed friends the Romans were onto something when they began coating themselves in this creamy gray-green soil from the nearby island of Ischia. The antimicrobial fango, as it’s referred to in Italian, has long been known for its anti-inflammatory properties.
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