Top 9 Things to do in Casciana Terme, Tuscany

Reviewed By Boovy123

This is a one-off, quirky outdoor spa with surrounding gardens, nestled in the charming town - actually more like a village of around 3000 people - of Casciana-Terme Lari which is very friendly and somewhat eccentric; my daughter and I had a lovely time sitting in the outdoor seating area of the Gran Cafe attached to the spa and overlooking the main piazza, sipping Prosecco and watching the world go by, including a lovely lady taking her cat for a leisurely stroll around the piazza - on a lead! It would be wrong to compare this spa with luxury spas and / or with entirely medical spas - it's somewhat in-between and can't really be categorised; the whole point is that it is simple, straightforward, relatively basic but also actually a lot of fun, where you can experience what it's like to 'join in with the locals' who love having this spa as something of a bonus in their already very lovely village centre. It's a few euros to get in, and somewhat surreal swimming about in what feels like a local park, with the beautiful Tuscan villas surrounding you as you look up from the pool. Inside, you can book treatments and these do include massages, but these there is also a more serious side to this spa where people with health conditions come for medical treatments. The spa also has open air 'disco's on a Friday evening and special occasion openings, such as on Halloween and New Year's Eve; these are deliberately not advertised very much because the whole point is not to spoil the feel of the place by overloading it with tourists. If you come expecting candles, fluffy towels, all that kind of luxury experience, you won't get it. If you turn up wanting to understand why locals return to the spa time and again and have huge affection for it, you will definitely enjoy it and, like me, return many times over.