Montecatini Terme
UNESCO also maintains a list of Tentative World Heritage Sites. These are sites that are being reviewed by the organization to determine if they meet the criteria to be inscribed on the World Heritage List and receive the benefits of being a World Heritage Site. One of these tentative sites is a Trans-European site, known as the Great Spas of Europe. The Great Spas of Europe are a collection of eleven spa towns built in the 18th-20th centuries spread throughout Europe built around mineral hot springs. Proponents of these spa towns cite them as great catalysts for European culture, rivaling only the European metropolises in cultural importance. The spas help transform European society and created a new and unique type of urban typology. The spas revolutionized the way Europeans thought about health.
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The Great Spas of Europe were put forward to UNESCO’s tentative list. The nominators believe that the Great Spas meet four of the ten UNESCO criteria that qualify it for inclusion on the World Heritage List. First is their influence on the construction and design of European towns. Second is the influence that the towns had on how Europeans thought about and dealt with the subject of health. Third is that they created a new type of urban typography, or urban design and planning. And, fourth, is the fact that the spas were transnational and brought together new ideas and people from all over Europe. They were philosophical locations.
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One of the eleven Great Spas of Europe is located in Tuscany and is known as Montecatini Terme. This spa was used by the Archduke of Tusany in the 20th century and thus spurred the growth of the surrounding town. Most of the spa buildings were built in the 18th century, but the spa waters had been used since 1773. The spa included hotels, villas, casinos, theaters, churches, and of course, baths. Today, Montecatini Terme is a tourist destination and a working spa facility. They offer a range of thermal bath treatments including drinking water, inhaling the water, mud therapy, rehabilitation using the mineral springs, and of course, bathing in the water. The spa believes that the waters can help ease or cure a number of physical or mental ailments and tourists can use the facilities for prices ranging from 6 euros for singular drinking treatments to 550 euros for extended rehabilitation programs.
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Montecatini Terme is located about an hour from Florence by train. Trains run often from Firenze Santa Maria Novella Station and stop in Montecatini Centro. Travel is by regional train and costs around 6 euros one way.