Throughly Thermally Bathed

Yesterday I went on a little day trip with 6 other people. We had heard our voice teacher, Kevin, recommend the local thermal baths, so we took him up on it. We got up at 7:15 and ventured took an hour long bus ride to a little town called Rapolano Terme. It was embedded into the Tuscan hills and overlooked a gorgeous view of the rolling landscape and farms. It took us about 20 minutes to walk to the thermal bath of our choice, San Giovanni Terme Rapolano, but it was worth it. Very secluded and not too big, this bath packed some really incredible features.

It starts with an indoor, circular pool that really smells like sulfer, but I didn't mind too much. The pool has little waterfalls that have really hot water, so we think this is the source of water for the entire system. It then pours into a bigger outdoor pool, which then pours into two smaller pools, and finally a large swimming pool size.

To our surprise, the water was never ever cold - even in the largest one. It was cloudy and had bits of minerals at the bottom, which at first freaked us out, but by the end we were scrubbing ourselves with the minerals. We probably spent 4 or 5 hours total, just sitting in the water and going to the different temperatures. I was so relaxed I feel asleep on and off. By the time we left, our skin was really soft and we were all ready for bed. It was much needed after our weeks of intense physical work.

Here's the website for the baths:
http://www.termesangiovanni.it/