Fosso Bianco hot springs & weird massage in southern Tuscany

To celebrate Earth Day, I am posting a entry about some wonderful hot springs we visited in Tuscany that few people know about. There are plenty of expensive day spas scattered around southern Tuscany, but these Fosso Bianco hot springs are natural, peaceful, and free! And definitely off the beaten path. International visitors are pretty foreign here! But no wonder… not one of my many guidebooks about Italy even mentioned them.

Fosso Bianco hot springs

springsFosso Bianco hot springs are located in the tiny village of Bagni San Filippo in the Val d’Orcia region of southern Tuscany—a 30 minute drive south of Pienza, 70 minutes from Siena or 2 hours from Florence. If you’re in Florence, these are actually closer than the more popular Saturnia springs.

When I discovered information about these Fosso Bianco hot springs online, I knew we had to include a visit during our 3 week trip to Italy. We arranged a guided taxi service months in advance to pick my daughter and I up at 9am from our agriturismo farm stay to spend the day at these mineral pools and adjacent spa. The drive took 30 minutes from San Quirico d’Orcia, the closest town to our wonderful accommodations at La Buca farm. (Luckily, the owner had communicated to me through translated emails that there is only one taxi service in each small town, so the need to reserve in advance was essential.) Our English speaking driver was funny, friendly, and entertaining, his personality matching his brightly decorated colorful van. He was happy to stop along the way and let us photograph interesting fields with giant hay bales, and later drove us to another town where the central plaza was flooded eons ago to create a thermal pool where pilgrims bathed enroute to Rome. (Remember reading Canterbury Tales in high school English?)

When we arrived in the tiny village of Bagni San Filippo, it was so quiet we didn’t see any businesses open. Or anybody on the streets. Our driver showed us the Hotel Terme where he would later pick us up in the afternoon, then dropped us off at the trail head. We followed the dirt path through the forest which soon paralleled a small creek that created small little pools. We kept walking until we reached a large snowy mountain called White Whale that is of course not snow, but calcium carbonate. The thermal pools were warmest around here. There were two senior aged Italian women soaking in the waters when we arrived, but otherwise it was deserted. 

There are quite a few different pools of varying depths and temperatures. We were visiting in June, and it was quite hot. But all the mineral pools that we dipped our toes in felt cooler than expected. Apparently the travertine pools higher up the White Whale are warmer, but there are signs posted on the trees that warm people not to climb. My guess is that plenty of locals climb them, but being in a foreign country without wheels was a recipe for danger if we fell through the hot crust.

So we soaked in the lower pools, and rubbed therapeutic mud on our skin while basking in the sunshine. Initially we were concerned it would be too hot to soak in hot springs. But the tepid water felt refreshing on a hot summer day.

For lunch we walked down the trail to the Hotel Terme where we had sandwiches on a little patio overlooking their swimming pool heated by hot springs. We had scheduled massage sessions mid afternoon at their spa a month in advance. Since we had time to kill before our treatments, we swam in the pool which felt extremely hot and not conducive to swimming laps. They provided the required rubber swimming caps when they saw that we didn’t bring our own.

Hydro-Massage

When I read about the hot springs, I read about the therapeutic spa treatments at the adjacent Hotel Terme. Why not splurge on something unique since the hot springs were free?

Well…as far as the massage treatment went…I have to admit I MUCH preferred the natural springs that day. But it was really my fault. My daughter signed up for a Swedish massage, but seeing the menu options on the spa website, I decided to go for their traditional hydromassage treatment–imagining that it would be similar to my experience in Iceland’s Blue Lagoon where I enjoyed a blissful massage while floating in the hot thermal waters. Instead, it couldn’t have been more different….

I was ushered back to a sterile looking room, given paper underwear and gestured to hop up onto a plastic foam covered table under a spray of water spouts. I felt the water–it was freezing cold. Where was the heated spring water that supplied the pool??? It’s n-n-not hot yet…! “It’s frio, frio, frio!!” I said, confusing Spanish for Italian. But the masseuse nodded understanding and patted the table, commanding me in Italian to hop up. It took great effort– accompanied by involuntary high-pitched screams–to make myself lie face down on that table, and to stay there for the next 30 minutes while freezing water from 5 jets hit my skin from my neck to my calves. Through clenched teeth and silent cursing, I rehashed my emails wondering where the lost in translation error had occurred when booking this treatment. It was anything but relaxing. And nothing close to a massage.

Instead, my muscles tightened in retaliation. I tensely endured the uncomfortable procedure of the masseuse spraying me with oil and ever so lightly rubbing it into my skin under the spraying jets. When she gestured me to turn over so I could continue the torture treatment on my front side, she laughed at my new shrieks and contorted face and gestured her arm into a strong fist, saying, “Ju bravo, bravo, bravo!!” Haha, not so funny. And I chose to splurge for this? Trying in vain to relax my clenched muscles, I tried to practice mind over matter but frankly couldn’t do it. And never adjusted to the frigid temperature. (I still don’t understand the purpose of the treatment or why anyone in their right mind would willingly sign up for this freezing hydromassage.) But I stuck it out..all the while longing for a soak in the natural Fosso Bianco hot springs again… just down the trail…