Walks · Bagno Vignoni · Italy
The Parco dei Mulini at Bagno Vignoni
four medieval mills carved into the rock, and the thermal water that turned them all year round
The water that fills the square of Bagno Vignoni does not stop there: it leaves the sixteenth century basin and runs down the travertine cliff, where four medieval mills are carved into the rock. Thanks to the thermal spring they milled three hundred and sixty five days a year, August included, when the other Tuscan mills stopped for the drought. The park has no gates, no opening hours and no ticket. You do not get into the water, a municipal ordinance has banned it across the whole area since 2010: you walk, over wet travertine, with the sound of the channels all around and the white of the rock in your eyes.
Getting there
- From the open pull-in on the gravel road down to the park there is a drop of about ten metres
- The other way in is from the village square, down a stone stairway between the houses that anyone can manage
- Inside the park you walk on smooth wet travertine: you need shoes that grip, and you need to watch where you put your feet
Practical information
Duration a full day, counting the descent, the round of the four mills and the extension down to the free pools of the river Orcia; the park never closes, but the best hours are between 10 and 16 on a sunny day
Price free
When to go April to June
Suitable for anyone who walks comfortably on uneven ground; it is not suitable for pushchairs or for people with reduced mobility
Booking not needed, the area is free to enter and has no opening hours
Contacts
Where it is
Bagno Vignoni · Toscana
You set off from
Notes
- Bathing is banned across the whole park: ordinance no. 22 of 31 March 2010 of the Comune di San Quirico d'Orcia, with an administrative fine of 25 to 500 euros and the text of the rules posted on a sign in the park
- The same rules forbid leaving the marked paths, crossing the fences, climbing on the ruins and the handrails, lighting fires in any season, picking plants and removing rocks, minerals or fossils; dogs are admitted only on a lead and under control
- There is no service of any kind in the park: no changing rooms, no showers, no drinking water. Bring at least two litres of water per person and sun cream, because the glare off the white travertine amplifies the sun even under the vegetation
- The four mills stand in a row along the cliff: the Mulino di Sopra and the Mulino Buca are entirely underground, while the Mulino di Mezzo and the Mulino da Piedi have the millstone room above ground and the wheel room below
- Everything is cut in negative into the limestone rock, mills, channels, storage basins and even the access roads: the cliff was too steep for building on top of it to make any sense
- The millstones turned on a horizontal wheel, driven by a pressurised jet released from the storage basin; thanks to the thermal spring the mills worked 365 days a year, even in summer, when the other Tuscan mills stopped for lack of water
- They stayed in operation until the mid nineteen fifties. In 1999 the Comune di San Quirico d'Orcia bought the area and began the restoration, funded in part by the European Union Raphael programme for industrial archaeological heritage; the opening was in September 2000
- From the lower part of the park you reach the free pools formed by the river Orcia, where the thermal water gathers and cools before joining the river: thicker vegetation, cooler water, almost nobody around
- The best time is between April and June, when the vegetation is green and the heat is not yet that of August; in winter the place is cold and there is little left to do
