Do you have to be nude to get in hot water at a spa?
 

On my trip I want to visit hot springs either in Northern Italy or in that Island off the coast of Naples. My question is do you have to prance around nude? Can you just slide down into the springs and can you wear at least the bottoms of a bathing suit? any suggestions? Thank you. I am still trying to get this trip worked out.

If you don't feel comfortable about being nude in public then wear your bathing suit. It's perfectly fine!

I was once at this spa alone, I looked around, and everyone else was nude!
I kept thinking to myself: what the hell! it's OK! just take it off! but I just couldn't bring myself to do it! so I put on my swimsuit, hopped in, and started chatting with a Swedish grandma!
And no one stared at me what so ever!

It's hard to stare at someone's body when that body is under water.

Unless you have a snorkel and goggles

:-B

P_M, LOL, snort, giggle.
I was very tempted to answer the question with "No, but it helps."

Seriously, I think there is always the option of wearing as much of a bathing suit as you wish.

PS: peeky (apt name for this thread), even if you go au naturel, "prancing around" is not required.

I wore a yellow ribbon. :)

I have found that any venue in which I am nude has the potential to get me into hot water!

BC

lol P_M, how you do make me laugh.

Peeky darling, you don't have to be nude, however you will be more comfortable if you are, which I know sounds bizzare. Just wrap a towel around you, walk up sit down, and while you are slipping into the water, just slide that towel off.

All done, no worries, comfy, free, spa like and relaxing. Believe me no one cares, and no one is looking, they are too busy relaxing.

Have one of these it if helps ((D))

%%- Tiff

I've been to quite a few spas in Italy, and in my experience, it's not that common for people to be nude. But maybe we're talking about different kinds of spas. The ones I've been to had indoor and outdoor pools with varying degrees of temperatures, and most people had swimsuits on.

Now in Germany, the spas I've been to were populated mostly by nude people. Well, nude except for the required bathing cap. Rather silly looking, actually.

As with many things, I think you may be more comfortable if you do what is the norm for the situation. If everyone is nude, lose the bathing suit, if some people are wearing them, then wear yours if you like. I'm no spa expert but sounds like different places have different traditions.

I don't know your age or body type, but for me, especially if it was older Italian local ladies, their bodies probably look just like mine... so no problem feeling at home.

P_M and Marilyn, my smarty-pants answer I resisted yesterday was: YES certainly you DO "have to prance around nude".

Well I would go nude and once they got a look at me I would quickly have it all to myself!!!!!! No worries. :D

My only experience was in Germany where it was co-ed, full nudity, no towels, (no bathing caps)... Some of the spas were shallow - so you were really visible even in the water. But if you are game for most things in life - then go for it. Again, follow the norm, and understand the requirements in case you aren't comfortable (lots of women came out of the locker room - saw it was co-ed - and quickly closed the door and left). An aside, in 27 years of marriage this is the first thing my husband has ever suggested we do on vacation. I guess that's progress...

Interesting, thank you for the replies. I thought if I ran out of the dressing room nude and everyone was clothed I would feel strange or the other way around. I will follow your advice and peek out of the door first.

Someone told me that on the island I think Procida they go in the sea spas nude. I would worry about an aggressive fish that is all I need is to be molested by a fish or octupus.

I think if you run out nude and everyone is clothed you should feel popular...

Hey peeky, I had the same question about two months ago...I was going to visit the island of Ischia (just a short distance from Procida) and wondered about the dress/non-dress code.

I never really got an answer before I left but what I experienced just last month:
At our hotel's two small thermal pools, bathing suits worn.

At a "natural" hot springs that ran into the sea (where I would have expected optional nudity): everyone was in bathing suits ("everyone" being a combo of Italians, a few North Americans and some Germans).

I would go prepared for anything!

Enjoy...I don't know about Procida but the hot waters on Ischia are wonderful.

I was at several of the thermal spas on Ischia, and never saw anyone out of a bathing suit.

Dear Cheeky Peeky, I thought I'd amuse you with my story about going nude.
Many years ago, a guitar friend of ours married a beautuiful young woman, whose father was the head of a college in Rhode Island. There was a reception there in a house on a lake that seemed to have a Scandinavian population. We were invited into a sauna, as part of the evenings festivities; everyone was naked but I kept a towel around my waist and I was the only one looking :)
I'd never seen so many of my friends naked before. After the sauna, everyone swam in the cold lake. I kept my towel adter coming out of the water, and still, years after, someone will chuckle, oh, you were the one with the towel.

LOL Cigale! The way to be noticed is to be different.

Thanks for the answers and the towel story is funny I wish I could wear a towel in the water. I had read someplace that the people bathe in the nude at the spas. I'm glad it is ok to wear a bathing suit, I would be afraid a fish would bite me or worse. The fish can't be in an hot spa or it would be stewed but in the open seas one might mistake me for a plump tuna and I couldn't even imagine the trauma.

Bellestar, did you like Ischia the best?