32 inhabitants, no supermarket and a lot of hot thermal water. In a nutshell, this sums up the little village of Bagno vignoni, 25 kilometers away from one of the wine capitals in Italy – Montepulciano. But it offers much more than that. And to discover its magic, you need to stay overnight in the village itself.
We arrived in our beautiful Bed & Breakfast in the afternoon. The boutique hotel La Locanda del Loggiato (loggiato.it) is run by two tuscan sisters. It is a little jewel situated on the tiny plaza of the Bagno Vignoni.
Short before 5 p.m. there was just enough time to jump in the thermal water pool of the Hotel Posta Marucci (hotelpostamarcucci.it). 40 degrees of this very mineralized vulcanic water and a stunning view over the beautiful tuscan landscape relaxed us just in minutes. After we were almost boiling we left the pool to have a short stroll through the village.
And by the size of the village it was a very very short stroll. While there is no supermarket or bakery, there is a beautiful litte bookstore. With a cup of tea in our hands and quality jazz music in the background we discovered every corner and book of this store. It has a great selection of books, especially some very nice recipe books about the tuscan cuisine. Equipped with a lot of new cooking ideas and some new books we went back to the hotel to have a nice read in the beautiful lobby/livingroom.
By then it was already time for dinner. We booked a table at the restaurant with a terrace overlooking the thermal spring pool. We started of with Panzanella (Here is the recipe for you), a very typical tuscan humid bread salad. And, as September is the best time for fresh cep mushrooms, risotto al porcini followed as a primo. The highlight of the meal, the secondi, was Faraona (guinea fowl) with figs. All of this was accompanied by some glasses of Val D’Orcia regional red wine – naturalmente. And so we enjoyed a beautiful candlelight dinner just interrupted by some blubber noises coming from the thermal water making its way to the surface.
The next morning we got up early to have the village for ourselves before all the day tourists started crowding the streets. We first dipped our feet into the water which is running through little canals around the city towards the valley. Then we followed it down the hill to discover a beautiful natural pool.
Hungry from so much walking and exploring we entered the lovely breakfast room to get a fresh brewed coffee and some delicious cakes and croissants.
Leaving Bagno vignione to continue our road trip we just felt like we had experienced a very magical place.
