Umberto Angeloni has a simple message: Indulge yourself. Of course, indulgence is a lot easier and more potentially hedonistic for an ultra-sophisticate who is chairman of Brioni of Milan, one of the top fashion houses in men’s suitdom.
But in “Seducing the Senses: Spa Visions of a Bon Vivant” (Brioni Books, $75–ouch), Angeloni explains with preacherlike conviction that failure to indulge ourselves with the sensual pleasures is to sin against nature, to work against our health, to sink to the level of the beast. In this case, he’s writing about the spa experience and how modern man, particularly in the West, largely has lost the touch.
By phone from New York, he said of indulging the senses: “I think it’s part of our nature. Any time we try to repress it or feel guilty about it, we’re wrong.”
The Guy Page can agree with that. Sign us up. Seriously, if you’re thinking of a spa vacation, you and your significant other will be moaning for it by the time you get done reading this baby, which includes a list of his favorite spas from around the world.
But if you don’t want to buy this book to get in the mood–even the pages are scented–at least listen to the way this guy thinks. We can learn from men like this.
We asked two other questions: Are Italian guys really cooler than any others? And what is the most important quality for men in relating to women?
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No. 1: “Stylewise, yes.” He elaborated. “You can spot an Italian among hundreds of tourists. They have a keener interest in details about clothing and food and other things.” Old Rome may have faded, he suggested, but the spirit of the empire lives on in modern Italians who possess an aesthetic sophistication second to none. (Hey, we can’t all be Italian, but we can take lessons.)
No. 2 (deep breath here): “You have to really start to think like a woman. You have to be her. It’s out of the stereotype of the macho man; it’s quite the opposite. You have to be able to feel her sensitivity, to almost become her. To me that’s the ultimate in pleasing a woman. You have to retain all your masculinity, but then become like a woman.”
Hey, no problem.
One last suggestion from our Italian friend: If you can’t globe-trot, just get your woman to a day spa. She’ll love you for it.