Bagno Vignoni

Where other villages have a piazza, Bagno Vignoni has a rectangular stone basin some fifty metres long filled with hot mineral water rising at around fifty degrees from the volcanic rock beneath, built in its present form in the sixteenth century. Catherine of Siena and Lorenzo de' Medici both came to take the waters. Bathing in the central basin is not permitted, and the water instead flows out over a travertine slope below the village, the Parco dei Mulini, where medieval mills used it before it drops to the Orcia. Tarkovsky opened and closed his film Nostalghia here.

History

The village lies in the Val d'Orcia on the Via Francigena, the main route of pilgrims to Rome, and the pilgrims' use of the road made its thermal waters known (Wikipedia, Bagno Vignoni).

What's there

• The central basin - a fifty-metre thermal pool where the square would be.
• The Parco dei Mulini - travertine terraces and medieval mills below.
• The steam - visible over the pool on cold mornings.
• The Val d'Orcia setting - the classic Tuscan valley all around.

When to go

April to October; winter mornings give the most steam over the basin. Spa hotels operate year-round. Val d'Orcia colours are best in late spring.

What to expect

The central pool cannot be entered; bathing means paying for a spa or using the free stream below, which is shallow and rocky. The village is very small.

Nearby

Bagni San Filippo lies south; Pienza is northeast.

Key facts