Bathing it in!

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Geo: 43.0288, 11.6188

We were all rather tired after our big day at Siena, so decided that we'd take it a little easier today. We had seen (on Grand Designs – European Tour, on TV) something about thermal baths, so went to look for them. At Bagno Vignoni, we found an entire town, centred around the warm waters that burst from the earth here. Apparently, these baths have been famous for thousands of years – the Etruscans used them, Romans used them on their march north, they were a favourite stopping point in the 12th and 13th century for those on their pilgrimage to Rome, Catherina of Siena was sent here to "heal" herself of her religious fervor by her mother, and Pope Pius II also came. The tiny village (population 36) has a swimming pool of the thermal waters as its central piazza. We went into town after looking at the channels of warm water gushing out of the town and down the hill, at the site of an old mill, and were charmed by the large central piazza which is a swimming pool! The only unfortunate thing is that you can no longer swim in this piazza – the gentle bubbling of the water showed that the pool is still being replenished daily. On a chapel, in ancient Greek, is written "Oh, Nymphs living in these vapors, liberating the eternal fire among the waves, restoring life to those who suffer, I salute you and gift you with copious waters. Spring forth and bring health to the infirm, and to the healthy, a sweet bath. For both, we will be grateful." It was, as you can imagine, very picturesque, and there was a group of artists painting the scene. We stopped for a coffee, whilst the kids raced around finding “ancient Roman bits” and taking photos on our behalf. Then, we soaked our feet in the hot (about 40 degrees) waters as they left the town – but the kids were disappointed that we couldn't swim (Matt did his best by falling over in the 3 inches of water!) There were plenty of spas, but these were health baths, full of elderly Germans and Italians (taking the baths is covered on Italian health care!) and not really kiddy-friendly places!

So we drove off to the nearby town of Castiglione d'Orcia, which had an impressive fortress that we had seen from Bagno Vignoni. When we got there, the fortress itself was closing, but the nice lady let us admire the view from its base, and we then had a picnic lunch on the stairs to the fortress, looking over the olive groves.

We were driving back towards Bagno Vignoni (and, I thought, on our way home!) when Steven detoured down a little dirt road. He and Georgia had seen some pools of water, from the viewpoint at the old mill, and he was going to find them! We arrived at the same time as a young Italian family and a couple from California, and between us, we found what we hoped was there! A pool of water, at the bottom of the cliffs, about 75cm deep – warm, but not hot, with a mild sulphur smell and limestone formations around it. The water was that amazing blue that comes from the pure white chalk/mud bottom – and we were swimming in minutes! It was wonderful – by then, the temperature of the day was about 33 degrees, and the water was probably “cooled” to 28 degrees. The kids would have stayed there all day, giving each other mud baths and leaning against the limestone to feel the warm waterfall run down their backs! All in the middle of nowhere, and with no signs or other indication that they are there – I think the locals like keeping this place to themselves!

When we finally tore the kids away from this place, we drove to San Quirico d”Orcia. We'd seen on the internet that there was to be a medieval festival of Barbarossa here on the weekend, and were keen to check out what we could see. It is a very attractive town, with medieval walls and buildings – but all was very very quiet when we arrived (although there was a large medieval trebuchet outside the walls). When we found the tourist office, they told us that a young girl from the village had died, and because of this, the twon was in mourning and the festival had been cancelled – in fact, her funeral was starting in a few minutes time! It really did feel like a town in mourning, and after an icecream which had been promised to the kids, we headed home.

Even the drive home was beautiful – we listened, at one point, to the sound of the wheat which rattled in the fields, and realized that the artwork in the tourist brochure was a painting of the field where we had parked – it was so beautiful!

We also called into the San Anna in Camprese (filming location for the English Patient) and went through the lovely, frescoed courtyard to the dining room – beautiful and solitary. It is amazing to just wander in and see this sort of stuff that would be a big tourist drawcard in any other country, but in Italy, with all its wealth of art, this doesn't even make the tourist guide books!

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