Tuscany: Bagni San Filippo Hot Springs, the Baths of the White Whale

Italy, Bagni San Filippo Hot Springs: a small Spa town in Val d’Orcia, southern Tuscany – A great Spa hotel with thermal baths and treatments + Fosso Bianco free thermal springs

Bagni San Filippo is a small spa town in Val d’Orcia, in the southern part of Tuscany. Here you will find both the Spa with thermal baths and treatments as well as the nearby free hot springs called Fosso Bianco.

At Fosso Bianco, where several hot springs flow into a succession of pools, you can swim all year round and admire the particular limestone formations that for the suggestive shapes have inspired different names such as the white whale or the glacier.

Due to its position on the slopes of Monte Amiata in the Val d’Orcia Natural and Cultural Artistic Park, Bagni San Filippo is the ideal base for visiting the many attractions of southern Tuscany, tasting the typical products and the excellent wines produced in the area.

Already known to the Romans, Bagni San Filippo is located in an area of ​​great landscape and naturalistic interest.

The Baths were restored in 1566 by Cosimo I de ‘Medici. Other illustrious personalities belonging to the Medici family were also customers, probably the most important of all Lorenzo the Magnificent who visited Bagni San Filippo in 1485.

The Grand Duke Ferdinando II attempted, in 1635, to free himself from a persistent “headache”.

Today the Terme di San Filippo, with its modern facilities, is the ideal destination for a relaxing holiday and offer, thanks to the healing properties of their waters, a valid remedy against various diseases.

The Thermal Baths of San Filippo – Natural Hot Springs and SPA

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The Thermal Baths of San Filippo are the main destination of the town, with a hotel, restaurant, swimming pool, spa treatments, and wellness center, the offer for a relaxing and regenerative stay is wide.

The spa treatments consist of baths, inhalation muds, and various types of aerosols. The spa offers different face and body treatments and a line of beauty products.

And then the splendid swimming pool at a temperature of 40 degrees (104 F) with hydromassage waterfall with its waters rich in sulfur, calcium, and magnesium.

Fosso Bianco, Free SPA Baths in Bagni San Filippo

The Fosso Bianco is a stream immersed in the woods where several hot springs flow into a succession of pools where you can bathe all year round and admire the particular limestone formations which, for their suggestive shapes, have inspired different names such as the white whale or the glacier.

The area is accessible by a road upstream from the town. The first pools and the first limestone formations are not far away while to see the famous waterfall and swim in the white sulphurous waters you have to go further.

Through an evocative pedestrian path immersed in the green of the bush, you get to the pools, accompanied by the rustling of the water.

See the Pictures and Read the Reviews of Fosso Bianco Hot Springs

How to Get to Fosso Bianco Hot Springs

Access to the entire Fosso Bianco area is free. The area is quite large, the first basins that meet along the road and going up the stream are characterized by very warm transparent waters.

Continuing instead on the main road and then along the path that runs alongside the river you reach the Cascata della Balena (Whale’s Waterfall), a huge block of limestone formed by the sediments of the white hyperthermal waters.

This water, mixing with the stream, gives the typical white-blue color that creates strong contrast with the surrounding forest.

Going further downstream you reach the thermal establishment where the abundant waters of the swimming pool are released into the Fosso Bianco, increasing the temperature.

Several Pictures and Reviews of San Filippo Hot Springs can be checked here

Swimming in the Magic White Whale Waterfall

The waterfall it is called White Whale for its resemblance to the mouth of a whale, the most suggestive limestone formation of the White Fosso Hot Springs.

Here the hottest waters not used by the spa flows at 48º from the nearby spring, guaranteeing a temperature so high as to allow you to bathe even out of season.

The quantity and the path of the water coming down from the waterfall changes quite frequently, transforming the scenery iwith new shapes and colors.

In fact, especially in winter, the thermal waters mix with rainwater rich in organic or mineral material which, depositing together with the limestones, creates shades of color on green or reddish-brown.

Often you can find small pools built by the inhabitants of the place or by tourists directly under the vertical wall of the waterfall to collect the warmer waters before they mix with those of the Fosso Bianco.

These basins are formed by simply letting the water flow through dry stone walls composed of a few stones, twigs and leaves.

On the bottom of these deposits the precious thermal mud used for the treatment of the skin of the face and body.

Passing Water

Passing Water is a small source downstream known for its mineral wealth and chemical composition.

It can be reached via a short pedestrian path near the Citerni Park downstream from the town. Some inhabitants and vacationers of the spa resort use this water during meals.

Terme Bagni San Filippo: Relax at the Hotel & Spa

The thermal waters of the pools of the Terme di San Filippo are hyperthermal sulphurous-sulphate-calcium-magnesium waters.

The analgesic, anti-inflammatory and muscle relaxant properties for the joints and anti-catarrhal, fluidifying and antimicrobial properties for the mucous membranes, are added to the properties of the natural mud.

The swimming pool is located in the center of the suggestive scenario represented by the white limestone deposits and the green of the Fosso Bianco scrub, reachable from the hotel through a path that crosses a series of steaming thermal streams.

The thermal pool is also open to external guests and is equipped with parking, solarium areas, and bar service.

Terme di San Filippo: Opening Hours and Prices

Terme Bagni San Filippo: the Wellness Center

The relaxing and beneficial properties of sulfurous waters and their sediments make the treatments offered by the Tuscan Wellness Center unique and natural.

To the typically thermal treatments, such as hydromassage in thermal water, peeling with thermal sediments left by the precious waters, thermal mud for face masks, and for detoxifying and relaxing treatments for the body, there are many other beauty treatments and massages.

Interested in other Hot Springs in Tuscany? Have a look at our articles:

• Thermal Baths of Saturnia
• Petriolo Natural Hot Springs
• Sorano, the Tuff Hearth of the Maremma
• Rapolano Terme Hot Springs
• The Most Beautiful Hot Springs and Thermal Baths in Tuscany

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