Southern Toscana is full of natural mineral-rich hot springs. One can access them generally one of three ways: pay money for the hotel spa fancy ones, hike until you smell something weird, or see something incredible from the highway and pull over.
In the interest of research, we did all three - though technically the last one was a destination and we didn’t just stumble across it while driving. But we COULD have.
We’ve already seen the first one, Bagni Vignoni just outside San Quirico d’Orcia, where we paid for an afternoon of bliss in the sunshine and hot waters at a posh hotel we could never afford to sleep in. Totally worth it.
The next two were of the free bushwhacking variety, though if you’re familiar with the ones in the Kootenays and such places, these were both fairly literally a walk in the park to get to.
First up, Bagni San Filippo! A tiny town in the forested hills famous for exactly this. A short walk through town and there is a path into the forest. Setting foot on the path, you are almost immediately assaulted by a strong odor much like a very bad fart from someone who has eaten a whole plate of boiled eggs. This is the part that requires courage and perseverance, as you can’t possibly imagine being able to relax with this air repeatedly entering your body. But persevere we did, and the smell dissipated quickly as we walked down to the actual waters.
We crossed a little river, with waters of aquamarine that were warm from the mix of river and mineral spring water. You can jump in right here, and there were pools everywhere where people had carved out spots to collect the warmer water coming out of the mountain. We continued on around a corner and this is what we saw:
Mountains of mineral and limestone formed over countless years have created a cascade of small hot pools that mix with the river water as they pour down from the earth. The pools are hotter the higher up you go, so with great care we climbed the weird and amazing formations until we found the perfect pool just for us. Here we sat for about 2 hours with the sun peeking through the trees and the sounds of the hot waterfall all around us. It was AMAZING.
One can’t imagine a reason good enough to leave this place.
We had to experiment with the different pools to find just the right one. Some were too small to be shared.
Forest view, looking from the mineral mountain back to the path we took to get there.
Very, very happy place.
Full relax mode. The water in this one was almost too hot.
The pools are lined with mineral-rich super soft white mud that makes a great facial. Or so I assume. It seemed like a good idea, and I knew my mum would have done exactly this.
We stopped by here on our way to Pitigliano, and continued our journey with the mineral mud on our skin, feeling amazing.
The day we left Pitigliano was dark and rainy. We were on our way north to Lucca, but wanted to stop by what is probably the most famous - and objectively gorgeous - free natural hot spring in the entire world.
Research!
Two of my besties will be coming here in summer, so I wanted to be sure we had thoroughly scouted the spa situation so we could report. This, friends, is Saturnia.
Driving the highway, we rounded a corner and - SERIOUSLY - this is what we saw:
I’d done the online research, I’d seen the photos. BUT IT ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE THIS. I didn’t truly believe it would, but it does. I can’t say this enough. It ACTUALLY looks like this.
And it’s free.
Of course we were extremely lucky in our timing: it’s full off-season, it was about 8am when we got here, and it was a blustery rainy day. In the busy season, as you would imagine, it’s standing room only. If I were to come in summer (ahem, Jenna) I would try to hit it up in the middle of the night, which would be magical but you’d want to bring light, or incredibly early in the morning.
This is what passes for a highway around here. And this is the road to Saturnia on this wet morning
The main entry point to get into the warm pools
Testing the waters
The old abandoned mill, doings its part to contribute to the scenery
The roaring water made for a much needed shoulder masssage
The bottoms of the pools are all these little white mineral rocks, tumbled for centuries to make pleasantly satisfying handfuls
And then we had to get out of the warm water and change as fast as possible into our dry clothes in the rain. This is me rinsing my feet before stepping into my socks, somehow without falling over.
I know it’s the most beautiful place you have ever seen. I know. But out of the two free ones we visited, both Cory and myself preferred Bagni San Filippo. And in high season that would be the one with fewer people, and/or more different pools and places to go to have space to yourself. I loved being in the forest. I loved climbing the mineral mountain to explore the different pools. I loved the soft mud that somehow felt so clean and nourishing. I also loved having so many different options for temperature, and overall San Filippo is much hotter. Saturnia is warm, not hot. But in summer it would probably be perfect.
Our super legit research concludes that one should definitely do both.