Tuscania Nature Reserve

Acquaforte and the Hot Springs

Acquaforte is a spring of sulphur water situated to the north of the town of Tuscania, in the San Savino locality. While it is not strictly speaking a monument of Tuscania, for its history and past importance it may be considered as such. It is surrounded by a beautiful landscape of cork groves which form a ring around the tufa crag (on which at one time stood the Abbey and the Castle); giving way, further down, to large stretches of meadowland gently sloping to the valley bottom, ending with a sinuous row of poplars and willows which mark the course of the Acquarella trench.
In Roman times, Tuscania had its own baths, as was customary for all Roman towns. Of these baths but little remains today, near the steep pathway for S. Pietro; they were unfortunately destroyed during World War I. A well-used road must have been that along the valley bottom, which followed the course of the Maschiolo leading as far as Acquarella, an area dominated by the bright green of the market gardens which produced abundant supplies of vegetables and fruit; indeed in documents dating back to the Middle Ages it is called 'Valle dell'Oro' or 'Valle Aurana' (the Golden Valley).
Here the citizens of Tuscania built their own 'baths', using the warm, sulphur waters of the torrent. Subsequently this area lost much of its importance, but still today the old folks remember when, as children, they used to go Acquaforte firstly to drink the waters and then to take a dip in the rudimental pool, dug out a few hundred meters upstream from the spring.