Few rivers and many thermal baths for a territory, the one
between the Val of Orcia and the Valdichiana, tied up to the
waters that, from immemorial time, have offered to the man optimal life's
conditions.
The same Via Francigena, not at random, wound its run grazing
the steaming tub of Vignoni Bath and the "bluffs" of limestone of Baths St.
Filippo: places, already then, frequented from illustrious characters and from
an endless crowd of pilgrims.
Each zone has but a direct relationship with the thermal
sources: a little bit everywhere have been recovered traces of ancient thermal
baths, like in St. Casciano dei Bagni and, naturally, in Chianciano, like
demonstrate the meaningful finds' recoveries deriving from a thermal building of
Roman epoch and from an Etruscan temple dedicated to a god of the "healthy
waters".
These finds today are preserved in the archaeological museum of the city. After
the fall of the Roman empire, during all the high Middle Ages, the interest
toward the thermal baths weakened, to reappear only in the XIV century and stay
alive and unchanged in the time like testify the numerous structures born around
the sources.
The Italian director Federico Fellini has made grow
hotels, parks, shops and places of fun around the sources of the "Acqua Santa"
and of "Sant'Elena", immortalizing Chianciano thermal baths in his film "Otto e
mezzo".
To only three km from Chianciano, in the fraction of
Sant'Albino we find the thermal baths of Montepulciano, that are vanguard in the
search and in the application of the thermal cares.
When we move definitely in the Valdichiana we find the sulfur
waters of Rapolano and finally the gigantic thermal swimming pool of Sarteano.
THERMAL SPRINGS OF MONTEPULCIANO
Localita' S. Albino Via delle Terme, 46 Montepulciano (Siena)
Tel. +39 0578 7911
Fax. +39 0578 799149
The treaty "de Thermis" by Andrea Bacci edited in 1571
contains several passages on the sulfur springs that flow in S. Albino di
Montepulciano.
The establishment "Terme di Montepulciano" was set up in 1966
with the objective of utilizing, in a rational and scientific way, the
therapeutic properties of these sulfur waters and the "salsobromoidiche"
(containing sodium chloride, bromide, iodide) present in the subsoil
specializing in the cure of respiratory pathologies and those of the skin.
The thermal center is equipped with "Scottish baths"
(alternating hot and cold showers); vapor showers; pools; toning and
moisturizing or relaxing treatments; hydro massage; hand massage; lymph
drainage; mud masks; facial masks; massages; and moisturizing, toning, and
purifying treatments; and other treatments, for the health and care of the body.
