Wellness

Springs of Wellness

Besides  the official  hot spas  www.termedeipapi.it  that attract visitors to the Viterbo area, there are three hidden  sulphur springs that dot the countryside near Viterbo.

“Don’t write anything about our hidden springs,’ I have been warned  by locals, but it looks as if  they are  finally being  discovered  and enhanced.   For those who would like to try out   “side B”  of the spa experience,  here are detailed directions to the hidden hot springs between Vetralla and Viterbo  –but remember, I didn’t tell you a thing.

Le Masse (also known as  Le Pozze di San Sisto) : Via Cassia km 77 after Vetralla, is the first countryside pool you come upon if driving up from Rome. It is tucked under the bridge where the road branches into the Viterbo - Orte superstrada. Take the Viterbo Sud direction to the right and stop in front of the fireplace display. Immediately across the street signalled by the remains of a Roman opus incertus  wall from the original thermal complex, there is a grassy area, lawns shaded by ancient olive trees, a BBQ area and  rustic  changing rooms. These natural pools are kept clean and attractive with a few touch ups from their original wild, unkempt  state.

Whole families with children now visit and enjoy the pools: frigidarium, tepidarium and caldarium, just as ancient Romans and the Etruscans before them did centuries ago.  Bring a picnic and you can lunch seated at shaded tables. The frigidarium  is a delight on hot smmer days, followd by a plunge in the tiepidarium and then the caldarium vasca where one can soak. Rubber hoses are hooked up to the source where sulphurous water bubbles out at 58°C from the mouth of the spring,  and can be collected for home use. Handicapped persons and pilgrims walking the Via Franchigena are conceded free entrance. There is a 25 euro annual  membership for all others.

The Bullicame springs can be seen from the Viterbo - Orte supertrada. Take the first exit signposted Le Terme but instead of turning left to Strada Bagni, turn right and pass over the highway. Suddenly the road turns into a potholed horror as you pass the Botanical  Garden. An ugly blue metal fence encloses the source of the Bullicame, the same spring that feeds  the nearby Terme dei Papi and Pianeta Benessere. There is a large rock inscribed with verses from Dante’s “Inferno” (Canto XVI v. 79-81) which describes the rivulet gushing forth from the wood: “As from the Bullicame issues a streamlet  which the sinful women share amongst themselves, so this ran down across the sand.”

Nowadays instead of sinful women, there are helicopters taking off from the nearby military airport, elderly people soaking  their arthritic joints in the mini-lake and office workers enjoying lunch break. Recently the area has been paved by the town of Viterbo,  destroying a part of the  naturalness of the site but adding  better viability.  There is another collection of  popular small bathing pools surrounded by a parking area  at the intersection of  the Strada Tuscanese   and  Strada Bagni.

Bagnaccio,  the furthest from civilisation. is not signposted. Take Via Cassia north past Viterbo (km88) then turn left towards Marta and left again after about a kilometre onto an unpaved country road near the ruins of a Roman thermal complex.

By Mary Jane Cryan

www.elegantetruria.com

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