Friday, March 11, 2011

Terme del Bagnaccio and Lake Bolsena

Today we went up to the region of Viterbo. We went first to the towns of Capodimonte and Marta on Bolsena Lake. Both walled medieval hill towns. Then we spent most the afternoon at the Terme del Bagnaccio.

Capodimonte was really cute. There were lots of cats by the main fountain. A coworker recommended a restaurant, but it was closed, so we ate some pizza on the lake.

Marta I liked a lot. At the top of the town, by the clock tower, there was a large square with a 360 view of the lake, countryside, and town.

The Terme del Bagnaccio is why we came there. These natural hot springs are still active. There are a few all over Italy. Boiling water comes up from the ground and is piped to different pools. The pools are dug out of natural stone and are different temperatures. The temperature appears to be controlled by how far it is piped from the source. Everyone was in the two hottest-- it was sunny but still not swimming pool weather. Fresh hot water is constantly being pored in, and drains out the other side keeping it clean. Also, each morning residents scrub it when the water level is low. There were “regulars” who clearly come everyday or nearly everyday. We will probably come back to take advantage of being able to take some sun even when it's cold.

[Edit] Pictures from this day are in the Viterbo album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/kaitlyn.hanrahan/20110310Viterbo#

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