“Are you tired?” Frederico, my nature guide, looks concerned as he side-eyes me on a wildlife walk around the perimeter of the Oasi Dynamo nature reserve. I’ve been strolling in silence, and he’s noticed.
Two days earlier, I had bumbled into the woodlands of the Apennine Mountains after dark, armed with a thermal imaging camera and a powerful torch, crunched down some chocolate cookies, sank a shot of bourbon, pointed at plants – proclaimed them “cute” – then was bewildered to not encounter any wolves on my guided night safari.
At that point, if anyone was tired, it was Frederico of me.
Now, I’m observing beech trees, deer tracks and yellow gorse flowers without the commentary on a path to the glassy waters of San Vito Lake.
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Here at Oasyhotel in Italy’s first WWF-affiliated nature reserve, there are more than 1,000 hectares of untamed land to take in. The former hunting estate turned “oasis” welcomes guests to slow down seasonally from late March through October, with wildlife at the forefront of its eco-conscious stays.
It wasn’t long after summiting the 25-minute hill from the main gate near San Marcello Piteglio that I was flat on my back in the forest. The words of a poetic collaboration between the Italian architect Michele De Lucchi and poet Mariangela Gualtieri rang out as a reminder to be content with stopping to stare up at the clouds and find happiness away from “busybodying”.
My poetic pause for reflection is part of the Oasy Contemporary Art and Architecture Museum’s (OCA) permanent trail of installations designed to invite contemplation about the human relationship with the environment.
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Under my usual programming in Italy, I would have hydrated with only Chianti, then tried out to become the town crier of San Marcello Piteglio. But this isn’t the Tuscany I know, and I’m intrigued to stop for a while to stare at a sky wearing its brightest blues for early April.
As Florence flows with throngs of tourists an hour south, silence in the Oasi Dynamo is the real marker of luxury. “Peace here is a privilege,” Antonella Bua, sales director at Oasyhotel, tells me somewhere within the wilds of the contemporary art path.
For context, I need not take a vow of silence, but this is a stay that, bar birdsong and the odd plane overhead, is without outside noise.
Where I have adjusted to a convoy of emergency vehicles wailing past my London window, can’t nod off without the dulcet tones of TikTok, and often fight back against the Brick I paid £40 to slash my screen time, Oasyhotel has no TVs except for a small basement cinema.
Still, the hotel’s digital detox is not done by turning off the wifi or wine tap; instead, its 17 forest lodgings lean into the landscape.
Wall-to-wall wooden rooms, more chalet than shed, with stainless steel showers and loos, are tucked under the trees, enjoying views of the valley that are best observed from the two Adirondack-style armchairs that sit on each veranda.
Doors open to the point that I could be camping; there’s space to breathe between rooms, and my only human sighting is at breakfast. Oasyhotel says it has no plans to expand its current cabins any further into the forest.
That same woodland is just waking up when I enter for a “Deep Relaxation Session” with therapist and wellbeing facilitator Lia Defilippi and a promise to try and be present.
Forest bathing, the Japanese practice of Shinrin Yoku, was born in the 1980s as a public health initiative to combat technology stress and urban burnout. The Dynamo introduced four dedicated forest bathing paths, designed to lower stress and boost immunity, for its 2026 season.
Having already rebuilt my relationship with the sky, I was now firmly planting my feet on the forest floor for a morning body tapping ritual.
There’s a method to this tapping. According to Lia, touches should be firm but not painful, from the wrist, not the elbow, soft but continuous, and you must remember to breathe. Combined, the practice should stimulate blood circulation, support lymphatic drainage and “calm the mind”.
The trees are tittering as I struggle to remember all of this, find my balance and stay upright without shaking. Still, a tap or 200 later, I think I’ve come around to calmness. Try as I might to fight it, I’m less ruminating, more relaxed by the time my forest Shinrin Yoku session is over.
Newly freed from the shackles of stress, it’s flavours from the forest that now beckon at Oasyhotel’s three restaurants – La Felci Restaurant, La Felci Bistrot and the Casa Luigi Farmhouse.
Having enjoyed solo dinners of stuffed raviolis at Le Felci from a menu of foraged ingredients from the Dynamo’s gardens and orchards, a plate of fresh pomodoro pasta sets up a day of walking and e-biking as I continue my quest to locate a wolf.
That evening, my first movement after watching the sunset on a hilltop vantage point startles the deer – my apologies are whispered as I dash for my helmet, and they all start barking at me in the highest decibels I’ve heard since I drove through the gates.
On my final morning, my moments of stillness aren’t scheduled. The first thing I do isn’t scroll on my phone but fling open the doors and relish the power of a peppermint tea.
I am as alarmed as Frederico at the person I’ve become in a space where my brain fog can be cleared.
My Oasyhotel stay ends in another comfortable silence with Massimiliano on the taxi ride to Florence airport. It seems we’re both content not to converse in our limited language commonalities as I absentmindedly tap at my wrist.
How to do it
Rates at Oasyhotel start from €600 (£517), including daily breakfast and complimentary e-Bikes to explore the nature reserve.
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