EXECUTIVE SPA HOTEL: the retreat with free access to gym, restaurants and wellness area

Located in an area with a proven successful entrepreneurial vocation, the EXECUTIVE SPA HOTEL in Fiorano Modenese is not settling for business customers and opens its doors to all: a free access spa, gym, cocktail bar and two high-profile restaurants.

The facility

It is not just any province, but the ceramic valley of Emilia: the heart of regional manufacturing pulses here, covering 80 percent of national production and standing out in the world, head to head with Castellon de la Plana in Catalonia, while the engines of luxury automotive, based in nearby Maranello, are roaring. A made-in-Italy entrepreneurship of excellence in the global market, attracting travelers from all over the world for its business.

Marcello Masi must have thought the area needed a hotel of equal standing, when he took over the framework of a building originally intended as a residence at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s. The entrepreneur, whose core business of international reach involves steel and printed circuit boards, intended to diversify, and he spared no expense to do so, eventually opening the EXECUTIVE hotel, the area's first four-star hotel, in 1985.

Not satisfied with that, he launched a full renovation in 2019, culminating in a new opening in June 2021. He added a second restaurant and cocktail bar on the rooftop, the spa, and a new meeting room to the original structure.

Although the legal requirements were amply met for the upgrade, the choice was to place itself in the 4-star superior category, fearing that the fifth would alienate a predominantly business clientele for reasons of corporate policies.

Rooms, suites and amenities

Rooms have also increased: from 60 to 64, including 5 suites among classic, executive and superior, which include a walk-in closet and living room. In the furnishings, prestigious names in Emilian and Italian interior design: colors by Kerakoll, Florim ceramics from Fiorano, Rubelli fabrics, and Flos lighting, with the intention of tuning interiors and exteriors, echoing the masters of 1970s Italian design, such as Franco Albini. While amenities signed Team Dr Joseph eschew disposables in favor of refillable formats, in deference to sustainability.

The EXECUTIVE's vocation, however, is not only to the business segment: the hotel opens its doors wide to those who live in the area, with the possibility of using its services. For example, the gym with Technogym machines, entrusted to the care of fitness manager Luca Roncaglia, which can be booked for hourly packages.

As well as the spa directed by Marta Padellini, which offers other packages consisting of ice waterfall, salt room, sauna, Turkish bath, chromotherapy path and swimming pool with Jacuzzi, herbal tea room and relaxation area. As well as holistic or Ayurvedic massages and facial or body beauty treatments, manicures or pedicures. And the two dining outlets are also open to the public, both claiming quality offerings.

The dining

On the ground floor is Exé, the establishment's historic restaurant of about 80 covers, open seven days a week, and in the winter months even on Sundays for lunch. Leading it since 2018 is Paolo Balboni, a navigated chef of Piedmontese origins, who has brought here pizzas "al tegamino" (also served in the rooftop cocktail bar, where bartender Dario Allegretti officiates), excellent meats aged in their own cells and grilled, and a menu of mouthwatering and creative dishes, where the tuna "al camino", a homage to Davide Scabin, stands out.

Another highlight is the wine cellar, made available to guests through a selection of 50 great wines by the glass, including vintage Gravner to Soldera. If you don't find a destination for the night, why not drop by EXECUTIVE? Then there's Alto, on the fourth floor, across from the cocktail bar. Here, a young talent, Mattia Trabetti, serves contemporary, thoughtful and imaginative cuisine, always based on local raw materials and artisanal products, structured into two not-to-be-missed courses: the vegetarian Emilia Vegetale and Modena Safari, hunting for excellence from the surrounding villages. Here, too, great wines, if possible higher-end, selected by sommelier Andrea Messori.

Finally, there is breakfast, which emphasizes the area, baked every morning by the person in charge of bakery and sweets for the entire structure: Alberto Zoboli. So that at the buffet you can serve yourself slices of a typical doughnut, or bensone, tart with black cherries from Vignola, or noodle cake; for savory lovers, cotechino and zabaglione.