Cathedrals of the Flesh: In Search of the Perfect Bath

A tour of the world’s great bathing cultures. People journey to Greece for the ruins, Turkey for the Haghi Sophia and Russia for St Peter’s, but Alexia Brue travels with a different itinerary – to visit the baths. What starts off as an innocent vacation quickly becomes an obsession as the author ventures to Turkey, Greece, Russia, Finland and Japan to sample the range of bathing traditions the world has to offer. caught up in the tide of travel and exploration and crossing paths with other travellers along the way, Alexia drifts further and further away from the life she left behind in New York City. Hoping to find a thriving local bath scene, she dips into hamams, banyas, saunas and onsen, finding both disappointment and bliss.