Brunello wine tasting and natural thermal baths in Italy!

Hello hello! Well, we’ve been in Croatia for over ten days now and there’s still posting to be done on Italy. I know, I’m behind, but I’m working on catching up. Today’s post is about three days we had that were technically “transition” days between cities, but when we ended up doing a bunch of random and really fun things, including my favorite wine tasting of the trip!

Brunello wine tasting

After our (amazing, awesome, fantastic) time in Florence, it was time to pack up and head to Rome. We first said goodbye to Merritt, who had to go back to New York and work and all that (whomp, whomp), dropped her off to the airport and started off to Rome. The total drive was supposed to take 3-4 hours, but we thought, we are in Italy, let’s have some extra fun on the way.

To start with, we headed to some luxury outlets (called ‘The Mall’), about 45 minutes outside of Florence. We got there before they opened (Merritt’s flight was pretty early in the morning) and chilled for a bit. However, pretty soon the tour buses started showing up, and look at the lines!! It was absolute insanity.

We shopped for a bit (fancy wallets for fun, good sneakers for need) and then headed down to our second stop – a wine tasting at a Brunello producer! We passed some gorgeous scenery along the way, including fields upon fields of blooming sunflowers. This picture gives you a sense how many were packed into a single field (but sadly these ones were facing away from us).

About two hours later we arrived at Castiglion del Bosco, for our afternoon wine tasting. This wine tasting was amazing. Everything from the grounds to the people to the wine itself was so amazing, and I’m so glad we decided to stop here on the way to Rome. I actually never knew much about Brunello wines until we created our own wine tasting in Greve, but it’s a type that Damian had drank and enjoyed at work dinners before. Now, it’s high on our list for our own enjoyment!

We showed up to the winery and met our tour guide, Marco. As opposed to other tours where there are 15-20 people getting the tour together, at Castiglion del Bosco it was just the two of us and Marco. It was really fun to be able to ask him all the questions and get deeper insight into the winery and Brunello wines. We learned that Brunello wines must be made 100% from Sangiovese grapes and that Castiglion del Bosco is owned by the Ferragamo family (of Salvatore Ferragamo fashion house fame).

Before we sat down for the actual wine tasting, Marco took us to the fermentation and filtering room (so sterile and organized, while I love) and then to the aging room, which was huge and one of the most beautiful wine cellars I have ever seen.

He also showed us some of the other neat areas of the property. There’s a room with a dining table right above the cellar, with a big panoramic window looking down into it. How cool would it be to host a small dinner or wine tasting in here? He also showed us a room that only members of their private club could use. It was so beautiful and relaxing, and each member has a locker where they can store their special wines. We aren’t the biggest wine people, but even we thought about joining when we saw it and heard the price!

And then soon, it was time to start our wine tasting, yay! This was another little thing, but I loved how they gave us a placemat showing us the wines we would be tasting. With the wines we got bread and two types of olive oil (which we devoured), and we actually ended up tasting six wines in total (see my placemat from before and after below).

We probably stayed at the actual wine tasting for about 90 minutes, chatting with Marco, learning more about the winery and just enjoying. Another thing I thought was really neat was that they had little samples of the soil that the grapes for their different wines is grown in, and it was cool to think about the different taste that a rockier or more dirt-based soil can product.

At the end of the wine tasting we both rated our wines, and my favorite was the 2012 Riserva – I thought it was very smooth and had little aftertaste even with a full body. This wine is aged a minimum of 7 years total (and was one of the most expensive they offered). We also really liked their 2015 Rossi di Montalcino, which is aged a minimum of 2.5 years and much more affordable at 25 euros a bottle, so we bought a bottle of that.

Overall, we love, love, loved our wine tasting experience here and would go back if we were in the area. They have another option vs. the one we did, where you try the same variety of wine but at different ages (e.g., one from the 1980s, one from the 1990s, one from the 2000s, etc.) and note the difference in taste. If you want to see what the offer go here (we did the Classic Tour), it’s really worth it!

Bagni San Filippo hot springs

After the wine tasting we drove to Bagni San Filippo, which is a small town about 90 minutes north of Rome. This town (and the one we went to after it) have natural hot springs and thermal baths, and we were excited to explore those! We stayed at a bed and breakfast right in town, which was great, because it was super cute and the entrance to the trail to the baths was literally right across the streets!

The night we got in we just chilled and then after a nice sleep in the next day we headed to the Bagni San Filippo hot springs. To get to them there is a little path you follow – at the beginning there are some pretty little pools forming from a river running through the area, and then about five minutes in you get to the big kahuna – a big white rock structure called balena bianca (the white whale).

The hot springs spew water out from the top of balena bianca and as the water comes down it collects into thermal baths and pools that have been created with rocks and calcified over time. As you get lower on the balena bianca the water temperature gets cooler, and it gets even cooler when it merges with the river water running through the area. It was super relaxing and we got some awesome pictures (including some gymnastic-ing). Aside from smelling like sulphur after, it was a great outing!

Saturnia hot springs

After our day at Bagni San Filippo we decided we hadn’t had enough of Italy’s hot springs, so we headed to a second set of thermal baths one on our way to Rome. These thermal baths are called Le Cascate del Mulino and are located right outside the town of Saturnia. It’s pretty neat because when you are driving there you can see the thermal baths below from the highway.

Before we went to these (free) outdoor hot springs, we decided to stop at Terme di Saturnia Spa for massages. This is a place that uses water sourced from the hot springs to make their own outdoor and indoor therapeutic pools and then also offers spa services. We were kind of meh on the whole place, to be honest, as it didn’t feel as upscale as it should, given the prices we paid, and we probably wouldn’t return here again.

After our treatments we headed to the Le Cascate hot springs and, well, it was also awesome like Bagni San Filippo! These baths are spread over a bigger area, but also were more crowded. It was easier to get into the pools (it was more flat so you didn’t have to climb up to get to the pools) and just as sulphur-y.

We had a really fun time here, getting pictures in different areas and playing in the waterfalls that were created by the varying levels of thermal baths. I will say, these baths are all probably a little more fun when you aren’t in the sun in 90-degree weather, but what can you do?

So, there’s still more to come about Italy?

I know, I know, I’m like two weeks behind from real time in terms of our posting. But, there’s too many fun things that we did and they take time to write about and then I have to take time away from the fun things we are doing right now to write about the previous fun things, and it’s all very complicated. And, as fun as the big things are, like Rome and Florence, I want to make sure to capture the small things – like the wine tasting and the shopping outlet and all that too. That being said, we had Rome as our last stop in Italy (crazy), and that is coming up next!

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Read more about our time in Italy using the links below:

• Italy Country Recap – What we loved (and didn’t love) in our six weeks there
• Italy – The plan for our six weeks here
• Italy – Visiting Pisa – the Leaning Tower and the Luminara festival
• Italy – Our day in Lucca
• Italy – Life on an agriturismo in Italy Part 1: Montecarlo (Tuscany)
• Italy – Four days in Bologna
• Italy – Life on an agriturismo in Italy Part 2: a vineyard in the Chianti region (Tuscany)
• Italy – Wineries and wine tasting in Chianti
• Italy – One day in Siena!
• Italy – Life on an agriturismo in Italy Part 3: Emilia Romagna
• Italy – Parmigiano Reggiano cheese factory and Balsamic Vinegar producer tours
• Italy – Hiking Cinque Terre
• Italy – Our three days in Florence
• Italy – Brunello wine tasting and visiting thermal baths (you are here!)
• Italy – Our three days in Rome