Cortina in Wellness 2026: A Full Moon Hypno-Sound Bath at Hotel Ancora
Cortina in Wellness: Technogym's Fourth Edition
From August 27 to 29, 2026, Cortina d'Ampezzo hosted the fourth edition of Cortina in Wellness, the initiative promoted by the Wellness Foundation, founded by Technogym chairman Nerio Alessandri, with Technogym serving as Official Training Partner and the patronage of Milano Cortina 2026 and the Municipality of Cortina d'Ampezzo. The weekend offered more than 100 free sessions, bookable through the Technogym app, across Technogym Master Trainer classes, open-air group cycling in Piazza Roma, power walks, bike tours, a running club, guided night walks with Cortina's Alpine Guides, and Technogym Checkup assessments measuring each participant's so-called wellness age.
Among the returning fixtures were the Cortina Mindfulness sessions, run with the Cortina Hoteliers Association, and a children's Tabata class with the event's mascot, Corty. The program reflected what Alessandri has described as the long-term goal behind the initiative: turning Cortina into a wellness destination in its own right, beyond its identity as a ski town, in the years following the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics. Between the training sessions, the checkups, and the mountain excursions, the weekend leaned heavily toward measurable, performance-oriented wellness, steps counted, scores logged, wellness age calculated.
Set against that backdrop, the invitation-only Hypno-Sound Bath at Hotel Ancora offered something closer to the opposite approach: no metrics, no app, nothing to track, just an hour of stillness, capped to a small, selected group of guests rather than the open-booking format used for most of the weekend's sessions.
A Full Moon Hypno-Sound Bath at Hotel Ancora
As part of the weekend, Letizia Silvestri of Altha was invited to lead an intimate, exclusive Hypno-Sound Bath at Hotel Ancora, the nearly 200-year-old hotel on Cortina's Corso Italia, owned by Renzo Rosso's Red Circle and managed by Egnazia Ospitalità Italiana, the same hospitality group behind Borgo Egnazia and Castel Badia. Built in 1826 and restored under designer Vicky Charles, the hotel reopened with dark woods, stone fireplaces, and interiors built around Cortina's alpine tradition, a setting that suited a slow, guided session far more than a conventional hotel ballroom would have. The session took place on the full moon of August 28, from 8 to 9pm, with guests settled under cashmere blankets on oversized, comfortable pillows for the hour.
Silvestri played a Grotta Sonora gong for the session, alongside Crystal Tones alchemy bowls, guiding the small group through a hypnotic relaxation designed to pair with the full moon's timing, a detail that suited a hotel with as much ceremony baked into its 200-year history as Ancora. Sessions like this typically run through a slow arc: an opening stretch of guided breathwork to settle the room, a longer stretch of live sound layered over hypnotic suggestion, and a gradual return to full awareness at the end, timed so no one leaves the room too abruptly.
Hosting a Hypno-Sound Bath inside a building this historic, on a weekend built around Technogym's vision for Cortina's future, put two very different ideas of wellness in the same room: performance and measurement on one side of town, and stillness on the other. Both, it turns out, were part of the same three days.
As a Board-Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, Silvestri builds sessions like this around nervous system regulation rather than relaxation for its own sake, guiding the body out of sympathetic activation and into a parasympathetic, rest-oriented state through a combination of hypnotic language and live sound healing. The small, invitation-only format at Ancora meant the session could stay closely paced to the group in the room, something harder to do in the larger public sessions that made up most of the Cortina in Wellness program.
Frequently Asked Questions
-
A. Cortina in Wellness is an annual event promoted by the Wellness Foundation, founded by Technogym chairman Nerio Alessandri, aimed at establishing Cortina d'Ampezzo as an international wellness destination. The 2026 edition, its fourth, ran August 27 to 29 with more than 100 free sessions.
-
A. Hotel Ancora is owned by Red Circle, the investment company of Diesel founder Renzo Rosso, and is managed by Egnazia Ospitalità Italiana, the hospitality group led by Aldo Melpignano that also runs Borgo Egnazia and Castel Badia.
-
A. A Hypno-Sound Bath combines clinical hypnotherapy with live sound healing instruments such as gongs and singing bowls. Guided hypnotic language brings the mind into a relaxed, receptive state while the sound supports the body's shift out of stress response and into rest.
-
A. A traditional sound bath uses live instruments, such as gongs and singing bowls, to guide listeners into deep relaxation through sound alone. A Hypno-Sound Bath adds a layer of clinical hypnotherapy, using guided hypnotic language alongside the sound to bring the mind into a more focused, receptive state, rather than passive listening.
-
A. Altha is based in the UAE, with sessions across Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but Letizia Silvestri also spends significant time in Italy and the Dolomites and leads sessions at partner venues around the world. The best way to find the next one is through the events section at altha.com/events.
