Luxury Hotels Atlas / Places / Italy / San Casciano dei Bagni / Fonteverde Lifestyle & Thermal Retreat
Fonteverde Lifestyle & Thermal Retreat
San Casciano dei Bagni, Italy · Independent · Core Luxury
Grand Duke Ferdinando I de' Medici put a Renaissance portico over these springs in 1607 so that he could take the waters without giving up any comfort, and the hotel still grows out of it. The water surfaces at 42 degrees from the aquifer of Monte Amiata, an extinct volcano, odourless and loaded with calcium, fluoride, magnesium and sulphur, and it goes into the pools untreated because the source runs deep and never stops turning over. Seventy-eight rooms, and a panoramic pool with the whole Val d'Orcia laid out in front of it.
- 78 rooms
- Opened 2002
About Fonteverde Lifestyle & Thermal Retreat
- In 2022, archaeologists working the sacred pool at Bagno Grande in the village above pulled out 24 Etruscan and Roman bronzes and about 5,000 gold, silver and bronze coins, the largest deposit of ancient bronze statuary ever found in Italy.
- The Roman sanctuary at the spring carried altars to Apollo, Asclepius, Hygieia, Isis and Fortuna Primigenia, and by the late second century AD the site lay within the estate of a Roman senatorial family.
- Fonteverde opened as a thermal resort in 2002, nearly four centuries after the Medici portico it was built around, and was overhauled again in 2021.
- The same thermal water is drunk, inhaled and used in mud treatments as well as bathed in, and the spa runs an Etruscan circuit that follows the ancient bathing rituals of the site.
History
Fonteverde stands on the thermal springs of San Casciano dei Bagni in southern Tuscany, water that Etruscans and then Romans came to for its healing properties long before anyone thought to build a hotel over it. In 1607 Grand Duke Ferdinando I de' Medici commissioned a monumental Renaissance portico and residence on the site so that he could take the cure in the manner he was used to, and that Medici palazzo remains the historic core of the property. The Medici structure is still known locally as the Terme del Portico.
The estate was developed into a spa hotel in the modern era and opened as a luxury thermal resort in May 2002. It runs as part of the Italian Hospitality Collection and is a member of Leading Hotels of the World, with 78 rooms and suites and an extensive spa fed directly by the hot springs. The water rises from the aquifer of Monte Amiata, an extinct volcano, at a natural 42 degrees Celsius, odourless and rich in calcium, fluoride, magnesium and sulphur. Because the source is deep and the turnover continuous, the water is used in the baths and pools without any treatment at all. Alongside the panoramic thermal pools the spa runs the Bioaquam multi-sensory hydrotherapy circuit, an Etruscan path built around ancient bathing practice, thermal muds and inhalation therapies. The property was substantially renovated in 2021.
The setting
The hotel faces San Casciano dei Bagni, a medieval hill village in the Sienese hills at the southern edge of Tuscany, with the Val d'Orcia and Monte Amiata filling the view. The springs that drew the Medici here have turned out to be one of the most important archaeological sites in Italy. Excavation of the sacred pool at Bagno Grande, in the village, began in 2019, and in the autumn of 2022 it produced 24 remarkably preserved Etruscan and Roman bronze statues, more than 300 votive objects, inscriptions in both Etruscan and Latin, and around 5,000 coins. It is the largest hoard of ancient bronze statuary ever found in the country and the most significant such discovery since the Riace warriors came out of the sea in 1972. A permanent museum for the bronzes is going into the sixteenth-century Palazzo dell'Arcipretura in the village centre. Chiusi, an Etruscan town in its own right, is about 25 kilometres away, and the lake of San Casciano roughly 13.
Restaurants and bars
- Ferdinando I — Restaurant
- La Corte — Restaurant
- Il Falconiere — Restaurant
- Bioaquam Café — Café
Experiences
- Parties and events — Events with dining at the restaurant 'Ferdinando I', the informal 'La Corte', the bar 'Il Falconiere' and the 'Bioaquam Café'.
Amenities
- Heliport
- Pet friendly
- Restaurants and bars
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