Cascate del Mulino

Below the hill village of Saturnia in southern Tuscany, warm water spills over a low ledge beside an old mill and runs down a staircase of pale, rounded pools. The basins were built by the water itself: as the mineral-rich spring water flows and evaporates, it leaves behind calcareous rock that forms terraced rims, and the pools take on a milky blue-white colour against the green Maremma countryside. The Cascate del Mulino, the Mill Falls, are the most famous of Saturnia's thermal cascades and are an open stretch of hillside where people come to sit in the warm water.

The water comes from a sulphurous spring that rises nearby at a constant temperature of about 37.5 °C, with a flow of close to 800 litres per second. According to the spa's own account, the water spends decades underground on its way from the Monte Amiata area, dissolving minerals from limestone and travertine before it surfaces. By the time it reaches the falls downstream it has cooled somewhat. A legend explains the name: Saturn, weary of humanity's endless wars, hurled a thunderbolt at the earth and opened a crater from which a warm spring flowed to calm mankind and bring back a golden age.

People have bathed here since Etruscan and Roman times. The ancient town of Saturnia, once called Aurinia, lay on the Roman road known as the Via Clodia, and a papal bull of 1188 already lists the "Baths of Saturnia" together with lodgings for travellers and bathers and a mill below the springs, fed by the same water – the forerunner of the mill that gives the falls their name. The site later fell into neglect, was brought back into use in the 16th century and was drained and developed into a modern spa from the late 19th century. The village above keeps stretches of polygonal ancient walls, a Roman gate and an Aldobrandeschi fortress.

Getting there

The falls lie at Follonata, about 2 km south of the village of Saturnia in the municipality of Manciano, province of Grosseto, beside the provincial road SP10. Grosseto is about 35 km away in a straight line and some 56 km by road. The nearest airport is Perugia San Francesco d'Assisi – Umbria International Airport (PEG), about 96 km away in a straight line; Rome is about 115 km from Saturnia.