To find the place I’d like to show you today, we need to leave behind Tuscany’s iconic rolling hills with their vineyards and olive groves, and venture deeper into the Val d’Orcia region. Between the historic towns of Siena and Montepulciano — approximately 50 kilometers south of the first — and just a stone’s throw away from the UNESCO World Heritage site of Pienza, lies a village that defies conventional urbanistic norms.

Welcome to Bagno Vignoni, a place where the central piazza is not adorned with statues or fountains but is, in fact, a steaming thermal pool that has been the lifeblood of the community for centuries: Piazza delle Sorgenti is a rectangular pool dating back to the 16th century, filled with thermal waters coming from underground volcanic layers.