We’re driving to Saturnia today, and it’s our longest drive yet. We can tell you that roads in Tuscany are narrow, very winding, and the speed limits are more a suggestion than a fact.
Our first mission was to check in at our B&B. Maybe it’s because we're earlier in the season than on our previous vacations in Italy, or perhaps it's because we're doing more B&B, but our hosts really want to talk to us and help us. In previous trips, we would get the standard give me money, here's your room, thanks. Now, however, they want to recommend places to go, tell us the best way to get there, provide every small detail about the accommodation, and so on. In previous locations, it was fine as they spoke a little English, Karine a little Italian so that everyone could understand one another. This time, our host has the same level of English as first-year elementary students in Quebec (yes, no, toaster, open, close without any sentences). He truly and deeply cared about giving us all the information and helping us get around, pushing Karine’s Italian skills to new limits.
Unlike our first B&B in Monterosso, this one didn't have a friendly washing machine that could do the work for me. As it’s been five days since we stayed long enough in one place to do laundry, I had to take the robot’s place and do the washing manually. I really don't mind the work. It’s simply slow work as sinks tend to be small in any hotel room.
A couple of hours after arriving, we had finished most of the laundry and were heading to the spa. First stop was the public and “natural” terms for some pictures. They made it easy to find, provided free parking, and even have a little restaurant by the entrance so you don't have to give up your spot on the ”beach” to eat. The location looks good (as there's a fair amount of sulphur in the water, it doesn't smell anything like what it looks). There's a myriad of waterfalls and basins to lounge in, as long as it’s no more than 20 minutes at a time; too long in acidic water full of many minerals can be bad for you, it seems. The only big downside is the ”beach” is really rocky terrain with little to no sand. It’s not very comfortable, and this is immediately obvious by seeing how people place their towels around the rocks. Still, it’s a beautiful spot (even if it's swarming with people) and remains a must-see.
We planned to go to the spa that's a little upstream and runs the same water through concrete pools, making it much more comfortable. Rich, from our learning at the beach, we also wanted a place that could lend us a parasol and sun chairs. We eventually made it there, but Google maps, the spa, the golf and the hotel resort that owns and operates the spa all conspired to make our way there difficult. Google Maps pointed us to the hotel's address. It’s about one street corner away from the public terms, but about 1.5km away on a private road. After much discussion with the hotel staff, we learn that the spa complex is not part of the hotel building but 800 meters down the road (thanks, Google, for pointing us at the wrong building). The explanation from the staff was also less than clear: about 800 meters along the private road, you’ll find signage for the clubhouse of the golf and spa resort. It seemed weird to us that it would be at the clubhouse, but the directions matched what the hotel said, so we followed. Turns out our intuition was correct. The clubhouse is nowhere near water and about 1.5km down a gravel road barely large enough for a car. While driving around, we kept seeing signs for birdwatching on the golf course, but nothing about the spa. That's strange enough for something calling itself a golf and spa resort. After much wondering, we gave up. We decided to drive up a little to get some more pictures of the public terms, then head back to the B&B. As we’re heading there, we see a small sign for the ”thermal park”! We can't believe our luck. One hour later than anticipated, we finally get to try out that famous stinky warm water.
The spa experience itself is everything you could imagine. Warm large pools of water with beach chairs and umbrellas. It did confirm to us, in the two small hours we had remaining before it closed, that a beach chair and umbrellas do make all the difference in our comfort and enjoyment of waterside relaxation. We’ve spent more time at the spa, even if we could get a whiff of stinky sulphuric water once in a while, than we spent sitting on a public beach in front of the Mediterranean with perfect swimming conditions. Still, two hours was plenty as there's very little space to swim at a spa and we’re not the type of people who want to work on our tan.
After relaxing, we parked the car at our B&B and made our way on foot to a lovely restaurant our host had reserved for us. We got an excellent table on the balcony, leading us to believe our host is also well-connected in town. Again, very little English is spoken, but enough to get us a delicious meal. The kitchen was the slowest we’ve encountered in a long time, taking an hour from the moment we sat down until we got our starters. We had already gone through our first 500ml of house wine (really, wine in Italy is always good, so any restaurant’s house wine is a good bet). Even if the service was slow, the food was great, the pasta was fresh, the meat was well done, and the flavours were well balanced. A litre of wine later, a shooter of cherry liquor for Karine and some sweet jet fuel (grappa) for me, we walked back to our room, happy and relaxed. Ready for another day of sunshine in Tuscany.
