We’re off to take the thermal waters of Fonte Verde Terme in the aptly named hill town of San Casciano dei Bagni, or San Casciano of the Baths. The Val d'Orcia has a number of ancient and active thermal mineral springs, including Fonte Verde. It is the third largest thermal bath in Europe, and its waters serve up a cocktail of stress-relieving minerals, including magnesium, calcium, sulphur, and fluoride in a bath warmed by Mother Nature to a toasty 100+ degrees Fahrenheit.
We’ve never done anything like this, so we don’t really know what to expect. We have bathing suits, but do people go naked in the main pool? The attendant hands us our spa robes, slippers, and towels, and we make our way to the ladies' changing room, where a small sign announces that swimsuits are de rigeur. No bathing in the buff. My body relaxes in relief.
Reassured thusly, we don our suits and pass through the mystic portal to the spa pool. We blink back the midday sun, and look out at what resembles a huge resort pool. Smaller pools are reserved for guests taking specific treatments. All ages are represented at Fonte Verde. There are families, young couples, ladies who lunch, and older bathers. Beautiful bodies all. The ladies who lunch are off to the right in the shade of a portico, gabbing al fresco, dressed in bikinis, stilettos and designer handbags. A family or two is setting up camp at the long end of the pool, arranging chaises longues in strategic formations to better sunbathe and kibitz together. A man bobs in the water with his young son.
We drop our things on chairs and investigate the pool. No need to ease into it, because we know we won't get goosebumps from cold. I step into this epsom elixir, and the feeling is luxuriant. Warming my bones and muscles sore with travel and some chronic pain, I’m perpetuating an ancient tradition. Seeking relief when the healing waters stir. The water is about waist deep on an adult. I sink down until the water laps at my ear lobes, and survey the aquascape at periscope depth. At one end of the pool, four tall spigots arch overhead and gush with water. To one side, a thermal cascade splashes down in moving sheet, some 15 -20 feet across. For a bather sitting directly under this mini waterfall, the water’s effect is a pounding hydro-massage whose force can strip off, um, a swimsuit top. Really; it happened. Sitting behind the aqua sheet, a bather transforms into an Impressionist dream-like form as I glance in from outside. I paddle to the spigots shower and sample the benefits upon my shoulders and neck, then bob around a bit.
I last only 10 minutes in the super-heated water before a slight wooziness sets in, so I step out and head to a lounge chair to cool off and sip water. Our group spends another hour at the pool’s edge, chatting, laughing, and I take a few photos. We have a bite to eat, and join the spa ladies in stilettos. Interestingly, we’re the only ones wearing hats, but we don’t mind. Then finally, drowsingly, we repair to the showers, pack up, and head back to Il Colombaio, our bodies warmed, rejuvenated and purified by the therapeutic waters nestled in these Tuscan hills.
For more information about Fonte Verde, go to: http://www.fonteverdespa.com/index.html
We’ve never done anything like this, so we don’t really know what to expect. We have bathing suits, but do people go naked in the main pool? The attendant hands us our spa robes, slippers, and towels, and we make our way to the ladies' changing room, where a small sign announces that swimsuits are de rigeur. No bathing in the buff. My body relaxes in relief.
Reassured thusly, we don our suits and pass through the mystic portal to the spa pool. We blink back the midday sun, and look out at what resembles a huge resort pool. Smaller pools are reserved for guests taking specific treatments. All ages are represented at Fonte Verde. There are families, young couples, ladies who lunch, and older bathers. Beautiful bodies all. The ladies who lunch are off to the right in the shade of a portico, gabbing al fresco, dressed in bikinis, stilettos and designer handbags. A family or two is setting up camp at the long end of the pool, arranging chaises longues in strategic formations to better sunbathe and kibitz together. A man bobs in the water with his young son.
We drop our things on chairs and investigate the pool. No need to ease into it, because we know we won't get goosebumps from cold. I step into this epsom elixir, and the feeling is luxuriant. Warming my bones and muscles sore with travel and some chronic pain, I’m perpetuating an ancient tradition. Seeking relief when the healing waters stir. The water is about waist deep on an adult. I sink down until the water laps at my ear lobes, and survey the aquascape at periscope depth. At one end of the pool, four tall spigots arch overhead and gush with water. To one side, a thermal cascade splashes down in moving sheet, some 15 -20 feet across. For a bather sitting directly under this mini waterfall, the water’s effect is a pounding hydro-massage whose force can strip off, um, a swimsuit top. Really; it happened. Sitting behind the aqua sheet, a bather transforms into an Impressionist dream-like form as I glance in from outside. I paddle to the spigots shower and sample the benefits upon my shoulders and neck, then bob around a bit.
I last only 10 minutes in the super-heated water before a slight wooziness sets in, so I step out and head to a lounge chair to cool off and sip water. Our group spends another hour at the pool’s edge, chatting, laughing, and I take a few photos. We have a bite to eat, and join the spa ladies in stilettos. Interestingly, we’re the only ones wearing hats, but we don’t mind. Then finally, drowsingly, we repair to the showers, pack up, and head back to Il Colombaio, our bodies warmed, rejuvenated and purified by the therapeutic waters nestled in these Tuscan hills.
For more information about Fonte Verde, go to: http://www.fonteverdespa.com/index.html
No comments:
Post a Comment