ITALY SPRING 2022 - THE WATERS

 ITALY SPRING 2022 - SULFUR BATHS

When you look at it through the eyes of Google the hot springs of Tuscany can become an image of overwhelming desire. It was impossible for me to look at them online without wanting to put them at the top of my bucket list. After a bit of wrangling my family acquiesced and indulged my in going along for a trip to one of them. My first choice was the waters at Saturnia but when we looked at a map they were just shy of a two-hour one way and two-hours back trip. Stefania told us of another one only forty minutes away.

We decided that we'd go to Bagni San Filippo just a few kilometers beyond Bagno Vignoni. On several former visits we've gone to the Alder Spa in Bogno Vagnoni but this time decided to pass. The hot springs at Bagni San Filippo were free. The Alder at Bagni Vignoni was well beyond the high end of our budget this time around.

The waters of both supposedly have medicinal properties but in the pictures it's the romantic aspect that draws you in, charming waterfalls spilling from one pool to the next, bubbling waters foaming around lounging bathers. The appeal is gravitational. 

We parked our car at the top of the hill just outside the entrance to the park. The springs themselves require a moderately precarious walk down through a wooded area. Even before we got out of the car we could sense that this might not be as idyllic as it appeared in print. One thing print cannot convey is smell. The reason for the milky blue color of the visually appealing water is the sulfur. I can still smell it right now.

Having come all this way there wasn't going to be any turning back. Emmy had worn her swimsuit under her dress but Rick and I did the Italian changing routine securing a towel around our waists and then shimmying out of one set of clothes and into our suits. With little experience with this technique I'm sure I flashed a few of unsuspecting travelers. When you finally reach the beginning of the water source you can see that the water is crystal clear but as the stream proceeds to move down through a series of pools and falls the sulfur makes it's way in mixing with the clear water and the Tuscan clay turning the waters that beautiful pale blue.

It also starts to stink even more than before. Now that pungent scent of rotten eggs was clinging to the inside of our nostrils and burned in our throats. This was when we started feeling a little uncomfortable about the second plan for the day: lunch. If we got into the water would the scent permeate our bodies and cling to our clothes? Would the host at any restaurant even want to let us in?  We gambled on being those stinky Americans that Europeans would turn up their noses to anyway and went for a dip.

Actually the pools are not meant to be jumped into but instead you slide in lounging in the mix of the restorative waters, sulfur and silt that awaits you at the bottom of the pool. The silt, a combination of Tuscan clay and sulfur at first felt slimy but we quickly got used to it.

After the queasiness about the silt's texture we decided it must be part of the springs medicinal properties so we rubbed it all over our bodies. After a while now having covered ourselves in gray mud we kind of got used to the smell and began to relax into the warmth of the water and the caked on coating of slug. The main thing we all agreed on was not to let our hair come in any contact with the water. If anything was going to retain the smell it was definitely going to be our hair. We didn't stay for a long time. We never found the spa at the end of the tiered pools but it was enough.

For lunch we decided on an old favorite: Il Vecchio Forno in San Quirico. It was on our way back from the hot springs and an easy choice.

The outside garden is one of our favorite places to dine no matter the time of day or the season of the year.

Emmy had developed a taste for liver pate and ordered the liver appetizer off the menu. When it arrived it wasn't pate but instead chicken offal: whole gizzards, liver and hearts. She went as far as the livers but couldn't stomach the hearts. They're a little chewier but I didn't have a problem with them.

We ended up with two kinds of pasta that I couldn't finish

but even though we were the only ones left in the restaurant we didn't feel rushed so we lingered.

On the drive back from San Quirico on the SS2 is a stand of cypress trees that has become the iconographic image of Tuscany. I've photographed it every visit but I still couldn't continue on without stopping. The image has become almost trite it's been photographed so many times and by much better photographers. There's now a pull off area so people can stop without fear of an accident. Alessandro would call that "a horrible moment". I got my shot and we were back.

The last part of the day was another dip in the pool, a late dinner of leftovers and an early bed.

All this traveling can wear a body out.