An outdoor thermal pool with steam rising off the water In the hot water

The free hot pools at the old mill of Saturnia

Saturnia

The thermal stream leaves the spa and drops down a slope of white limestone it has shaped into a stack of shallow basins around an old mill. It costs nothing and it never shuts.

How the day goes

  1. Park and walk down to the terraces, then pick a basin and lower yourself into it.
  2. The water pours from one basin into the next, so you sit under it and take it on the shoulders.
  3. There is a bar and there is the car park: come with your swimsuit already on and a towel in the boot.
  4. Go at first light or after dark, when the basins are yours instead of everyone's.

There is no attendant and nowhere to change, which is exactly what keeps it free and open at night; the spa park up the road has both.

Where it is

Saturnia at its real position from Rome, with everywhere else we list behind it — so you can see how far out this one is.

Saturnia, and where it is from Rome Saturnia drawn at its real position relative to Rome, about 136 minutes by car. The faint dots are the other places we list, so you can see how far out this one is. 136 min Rome Saturnia

Open it where the roads are

Takes you to Saturnia, 58014 Manciano (GR), the address the operator publishes.

Getting there

Getting there, the comfortable way

  • 2 h 16drive from the middle of Rome
  • 153 kmeach way

  • Rent a car for the day

    The day stays yours: you leave when you want, stop where you want, and come back when the light goes.

    • You pick it up in Rome and drop it back in Rome
    • No timetable to build the day around
    • The stops on the way are the good part, and they need a car

    Affiliate link — you pay their price, never more, and they pay us. You book with Localrent, and anything about that booking goes through them.

    See prices on Localrent

  • Have a driver take you — nothing to do but soak

    Our pick for this one

    You come out of the water warm and slow, which is a bad state to drive back in.

    • Picked up where you are staying, dropped back there
    • No parking to find and no ZTL to worry about
    • You can come out of the water and just sit

    Affiliate link — you pay their price, never more, and they pay us. You book with Welcome Pickups, and anything about that booking goes through them.

    See prices on Welcome Pickups

Also around Saturnia

Saturnia In the old stones

The walls of Saturnia

Town walls at Saturnia.

Free — nothing to pay

Just turn up — open air, any hour

See the day
Saturnia In the old stones

Porta Romana

A city gate in Saturnia.

Free — nothing to pay

Just turn up — open air, any hour

See the day

More in the hot water

Steam rising from natural hot pools In the hot water

Acque Albule thermal pools

Six pools at a steady 23°C, and the station is right behind the park.

€16 per person

Books on termediroma.org

See the day
A large open-air thermal pool ringed by loungers and parasols, seen from above In the hot water

Terme dei Papi monumental pool

The water leaves the ground at 58°C, and on Saturday you can still be in it at 1am.

€12 per person

Books on termedeipapi.it

See the day
Steaming hot-spring cascades over white rock beside an old stone mill In the hot water

Bullicame free hot springs

58°C out of the ground, free, 209 metres from the bus stop, and no changing room.

Free — nothing to pay

Booked by phone

See the day
Steam rising from natural hot pools In the hot water

Tuscia Terme thermal park

Five hours in thermal water up to 58°C and nothing else to plan that day.

€12 per person

Books on tusciaterme.it

See the day

We have not verified this one yet. Everything below comes from the operator and we have not checked it — treat it as a lead, not as a listing.

Photograph by Entuconcienciaqueda, Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 4.0. Not this place: it shows what the day looks like, and will be replaced with the operator's own photograph or ours from the field.

Links marked affiliate pay us a commission — you pay the operator's own price and we never take your money. How we rank