Thermal tourism is a trend that is recently experiencing a new golden age: many have approached this kind of relax-holiday to enjoy beauty treatments in a natural way or to regain their physical form and restore their spirituality.
The public baths and the origin
Along the river Farma, enclosed in a beautiful natural landscape a few steps away from the Natural Reserve of Basso Merse, about 20 minutes from Siena, we find Bagni Di Petriolo, one of the few public thermal center in Tuscany. The settlement, that dates back to Medieval times, still preserves the ruins of the ancient thermal buildings and the city walls, built by the Siena in 1404: for this reason it is an extraordinary examples of fortified baths all over the world. A peculiarity of this place is that sulphurous water origin directly from the subsoil and not from the discharge of an upper thermal establishment. It flows into limpid limestone pools, reaching a temperature of 43° C. While descending to the river bank, it fills these natural basins with lower and lower temperatures: visitors can choose the temperature they prefer in order to enjoy the healing properties of water, particularly indicated in case of diseases affecting the motor system, the respiratory tract and the skin. Unfortunately, today the public baths are abandoned: with great effort, an association of volunteers try to keep them open to everyone.
The thermal establishment
In addition to the public baths, in Petriolo-Monticiano there is a thermal establishment, open every day, which offers mud baths and some extra comforts to satisfy both traditional and trendy needs. It was built in the early 2000s. Until then, thermal water gushed out in its entirety within the limestone pools, freely accessible by the river. Unfortunately the plant caused a decreasing of flowing water in the public area. If from an economic point of view the public baths are obviously preferable, the private spa is supplied with better quality waters, as they come directly from the source and only partially drain to the public part. The beauty center propose treatments to all guests, from the youngest to the elderly ones: mud therapy, inhalation, beauty treatments, relaxation baths, face and body masks, toning, anti-stress and regenerating massages, shiatsu and lymphatic drainage, balneotherapy and much much more.
