Bagno Vignoni

Bagno Vignoni is a small spa of medieval origin, although it was already know in Roman times. Bagno Vignoni sits on a hill above the    Val d'Orcia just south of San Quirico. The fascinating tiny village is clustered around a large pool closed on three sides by the town walls, whith water that flows at 52°. The pool essentially fills the square, surrounded by a 1.5 metre-high wall on three sides. All around are buildings designed by Bernardo Rossellino in honour of Pope Pius II, while on the fourth side is the archway from which St. Catherine of Siena admired the view. This place also fascinated Lorenzo il Magnifico of the Medici family, who spent part of 1490 here. The old Francigena road passes near the village, and as the diary written in 1581 by Michel de Montagne confirms, pilgrims and travellers heading toward Rome frequently stopped in Bagno Vignoni to find comfort in its hot springs.
In 1677 the Gran Duke Cosimo III enfeoffed St. Quirico d’Orcia to Cardinal Flavio Chigi, together with the lilttle villages of Vignoni and Bagno Vignoni; the thermal establishment, together with three mills, eight houses, a tavern and a certain amount of land thus passed into the hands of the Chigi family and their discendents to whom a part still remains in property.
Nowadays Bagno Vignoni is well-known and appreciated the world over as an esteemed thermal locality situated in the heart of the Val d’Orcia.

Parco dei Mulini

The water of Bagno Vignoni was analized and described by the naturalist Giorgio Santi, but its usefulness was not limited – as noted by Emanuele Repetti – to its therapeutic effects alone; it served, in fact, to put "in motion 5 or 6 mills built one above another inside the travertine caves."
Today, thanks to rearrangement of the area carried out by the Commune and the ensuing inauguration of the Park of the Mills, visitors can admire some of the buildings mentioned by Repetti, which remained abandoned up to the middle of the 1950s. The activity of milling was, in fact, along with that of the baths, one of Bagno Vignoni's major resources.

Behind Bagno Vignoni, immersed and hidden in the green of the hill there is the small village borgo Vignoni Alto in a position that dominates the entire Val d' Orcia and the Monte Amiata.

The vicinity of the bath to the Via Francigena, the pilgrims' route to Rome, persuaded the less-hurried travellers to make the acquaintance of the spa waters. La Via Francigena was the road, or better said, the bunch of roads that led to Rome from northern Europe. In Tuscany it follows the Cassia way touching San Gimignano, Siena, then San Quirico and Radicofani, travelling along the Val d'Orcia.

Walking in Tuscany | Via Francigena

Andrei Tarkovsky shot Nostalghia in Tuscany in 1983. There were two sets he used for his film, Bagno di Vignoni and the Abbadia di San Galgano. Both sets played a very important role in the film, Bagno Vignoni serving as the culmination scene, San Galgano being the backdrop of a marvellous dream sequence staging a small Russican cottage from his childhood in a medieval Tuscan Abbey.

Films set in Tuscany | Nostalghia (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1983)

Watch Bagno Vignoni in Tarkovsky's film Nostalghia

Free natural hot springs in Tuscany

Films set in Tuscany | Le Meraviglie (Alice Rohrwachter, 2014)

Mappa Val d'Orcia | Ingrandire mappa

POINT OF DEPARTURE AND ARRIVAL: Bagno Vignoni (Tourist Office at the entrance of the village), parking available. (Circular path).
LENGTH: about 12 Km.
DURATION: 4 hours.

The route starts from the tourist office located at the entrance of Bagno Vignoni. Take the paved road in the direction indicated by the sign of farmhouses. The asphalt road leads straight into the dirt and get to Vignoni Alto after about 40 minutes of ascent through olive groves and vineyards. (...)

Trekking sul Monte Amiata | Da Bagno Vignoni, un'immersione nella Val d'Orcia

Walking in the Val d'Orcia [1]

From San Quirico d'Orcia to Bagno Vignoni

Bagno Vignoni - La Foce

Bagno Vignoni - Bagno Vignoni

Castiglione d'Orcia - Castiglione d'Orcia

Walking in the Val d'Orcia [2]

Vivo d'Orcia - Vivo d'Orcia

Castelnuovo dell'Abate - Vivo d'Orcia

The Castle of Vivo d'Orcia lies in the widespread Orcia valley in southern Tuscany, 35 km north of Podere Santa Pia. The area surrounding Montalcino has been famed for centuries by artists and poets for its beautiful yet peaceful landscapes, comprising of soft rolling valleys and lightly peppered with olive groves and vineyards of superior quality.
Vivo d'Orcia is a splendid outlying district of Castiglion d'Orcia, set in a valley outside time. At the foot of the castle, the river Vivo runs whose sources rise in the locality of Ermicciolo. Starting in the middle ages flour-mills, paper-mills and ironworks were built along the torrent and, in the 1920’s, one of the first hydroelectric power stations. Traces of these old buildings, covered with climbing plants, may still be seen here in one of the area’s most beautiful and evocative landscapes.

Maps and further descriptions are available in Podere Sante Pia.

Walk around Pienza
Montepulciano - Pienza | 11 km, 3 hours

Walking in Tuscany | San Quirico d'Orcia, Bagni Vignoni, Castiglione d'Orcia, Rocca d'Orcia, Montalcino, La Foce

Walking in Tuscany | Rocca d'Orcia, Castelnuovo dell'Abate - Vivo d'Orcia

Historic Centre of the City of Pienza | whc.unesco.org

Trekking Val d'Orcia

Villa La Foce Estate | La Foce - 61, Strada della Vittoria -53042 Chianciano Terme - Siena | www.lafoce.com

Tuscany | The Val d'Orcia

In the heart of the evocative Tuscany country, hidden away from mass-tourism, one can discover a piece of Italy which remains largely unchanged both nature and lifestyle-wise. The peacefulness of the countryside, the various unique villages and the friendly atmosphere will no doubt pleasantly surprise you.

Hiden secrets in southern Tuscany | Podere Santa Pia