Italian Thermal Baths
Italians are obsessed with water and its therapeutic benefits. They drink more bottled water than other Europeans—and that water has distinct differences, mineral contents, and purposes. Acqua Panna is bottled in northern Tuscany, is intended for adults and is advertised for its “smooth” taste and Tuscan roots. It is very different from Lete, a water from Naples (and the sponsor of Napoli, the soccer team) that facilitates digestion and reduces abdominal swelling. Lete is particularly useful for athletes—which might explain their promotion of Napoli. Sangemini is preferred for children due to its high levels of calcium. I could go on, as there are about 600 different bottled waters in Italy. Each of these note their mineral content. Many underscore the benefits of their consumption.
So it should not be surprising that Italians also enjoy soaking in water. There are many thermal baths in Italy (some of which are described by Leon Battista Alberti in his 1550 Descrittione di tutta Italia) and dozens in Tuscany. Most of the Tuscan baths are located in the province of Siena—in the shadows of Mount Amiata, a dormant volcano. Many of these baths are known for certain attributes—reputed to help those who suffer from arthritis, rheumatisms, neuralgia, and so forth. Gambassi Terme for example, located between Florence and Siena, was and is known to help those who suffered from colon distress.[1]
“As architectural historians we should think more about the extent to which water is an important architectural and urban material.”
St. Catherine of Siena (Caterina Benincasa) was taken by her mother as a young girl to the baths of Bagno Vignoni located south of Siena along the via Francigena, the pilgrim route which ran from France to Rome in the 1360s (for what reason is unclear) (figure 1). The merchant from Prato, Francesco di Marco Datini (the merchant made famous by Iris Origo in her 1957 book) went to baths in Montecatini at the behest of his doctor. These baths specialized in respiratory pathologies such as bronchitis and pneumonia. The doctor, Ugolino de Montecatini (1345-1425) was one of the first doctors to study, write about and promote the therapeutic properties of thermal waters. In 1417 he wrote De balneorum Italiae proprietatibus ac virtutibus which among other things noted which luminaries went to which baths. Petriolo (between Siena and Grosseto) for example, could “resolve the humours” and was visited by Pope Pius II. The merchant Datini also wrote about the Terme of Porretta (known for healing infertility in women) north of Florence in a letter dated to 1387 as his good friend went there and was cured of kidney stones. Lucrezia Borgia frequented numerous baths including Petriolo and the Bagno à Morba (south of Volterra). After Ugolino, Michele Savonarola (1385-c.1466) (the grandfather of the preacher Girolamo) wrote about the advantage of baths. He was a medical professor at the University of Padua.
Figure 1: Bagno Vignoni (Photo by Laurie Conlon)
Lorenzo the Magnificent visited several thermal baths including Bagno à Morba for his eczema, Bagni San Filippo (south of Siena), Porretta, Petriolo and Bagno Vignoni several times with the intent of alieving his gout. Niccolo Machiavelli mentioned both the waters of Bagni San Filippo and Porretta in his 1518 comedic ruse Mandragola, which involves love potion, mistaken identities, and sex (Act I – Scene II) (figure 2). The beautiful Lucrezia became pregnant, but no thanks to the waters or the inclinations of her husband Nicia. Grand Duke Ferdinando II de Medici in turn went to Bagno Vignoni in 1635 to nurse his persistent headache. Bianca Cappello wife of Francesco I de’Medici, Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga, Giovanni Visconti Sforza the first husband of Lucrezia Borgia all visited Porretta. Giuseppe Verdi in turn lived for over 10 years in Montecatini. Much later, the musician Madonna, visited the baths.
Figure 2: Bagni San Filippo (Photo by Laurie Conlon)
Since Roman times, the waters of San Casciano dei Bagni (located at the base of the Mount Cetona) rich in calcium, fluorine, and magnesium, attracted many (figure 3). There are five different waters in the town, each with different characteristics; one cleanses the liver, another helps with digestion, a third is used to heal respiratory pathologies, a fourth is known for its energizing properties, while the fifth type of water is consumed and soaked in by those who suffer from gastrointestinal ailments.
Figure 3: San Casciano dei Bagni (Photo by Laurie Conlon)
So, it is clear. Everyone went for something.
It is not uncommon for Italians today to spend several times a year soaking in baths, for health reasons. And some baths are affiliated with hospitals—an interesting concept is that if you are sick you might actually get better, faster, if you were to soak in the warm, mineral heavy waters. In much of the US such a tradition does not exist. When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt went to Warm Springs, Georgia to soak in the mineral waters to rehabilitate himself from the effects of polio, it was an anomaly. In 1927 Roosevelt founded a rehabilitation facility on site, that remains one of the few sites like it in the US.
And so, in 2018 I dragged my son and two friends to a number of baths in Italy (figure 4). I wanted to do some research. But I also have a severe form of MS, am in a wheelchair and cannot walk. So I also wanted to see if the baths helped. They did.
Figure 4: Piscine Termali Theia, Chianciano Terme (Photo by Laurie Conlon)
Early in the twentieth century, my great-grandmother Pilar Fernández, traveled from her home in Buenos Aires, to Spain to sit in a thermal bath in the central part of the country (perhaps in Burgo de Osma, one of hundreds of sites). She suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, was in a wheelchair, and the young mother of two children. After a year she was a-symptomatic, could walk, and went on to have another child. Given her apparent cure, one cannot help but wonder about miraculous sites such as Lourdes (where millions of pilgrims visit the famed Grotto of Massabielle in southwestern France at the foothills of the Pyrenees to drink or bathe in water flowing from a spring in the hope of seeking a cure for various ailments including rheumatism and partial paralysis).
As architectural historians we should think more about the extent to which water is an important architectural and urban material. Entire towns have become health resorts. Montecatini Terme for example has ten different baths from four different waters. Chianciano Terme in turn is considered one of the finest health resorts in the country. Among the more notable baths in the town are the Aqua Santa, Aqua Fucoli, Aqua Sillene, Aqua Santissima (which also advertises itself as a spa for those with respiratory problems), and Aqua Sant'Elena (which advertises that the calcic-alkaline bicarbonate in its water can treat kidney and urinary tract problems). And yet, there is surprisingly little scholarship on baths.
NOTES
[1] On baths see Cura, Preghiera, e Benessere. Le stazioni curative termominerali nell’italia romana, Edited by Matteo Annibaletto, Maddalena Bassabi, Francesca Ghedini
Padova: Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali: Archeologia, Storia dell Arte, dell’Cinema e della Musica, 2014.)
