AS IF TUSCANY ISN’T MARVELOUS ENOUGH—cities bursting with masterpieces of art, charming hill towns, and a countryside that’s world famous for vineyards and olive groves, the region also has the most thermal springs of any in Italy.

Here are some favorites:

Free Spas

• Saturnia Terme, in the province of Maremma, is Tuscany’s most famous free spa. Myth has it that the springs were created when Jupiter became enraged at Saturn and shot lightning bolts down to Earth. The god’s fury created the Cascate del Mulino, (www.cascate-del-mulino.info), a fantastic hot bubbling waterfall that tumbles down into a complex of warm thermal pools, surrounded by lush vegetation. Sulphur is the major mineral component of these waters (good for skin and joints), so a rotten-egg smell will lead you to this glorious spot. Be advised that it gets mobbed midday and in summer. It’s wonderful to go at night, with a flashlight, when clouds of steam rise from the pools and you can soak under the stars.
• San Filippo (www.bagnisanfilippoterme.it), named after a Florentine hermit, is a less dramatic option in the province of Siena. A short hike from the road through the woods brings you to Fosso Bianco, a large white rock formation created by the springs. Further along are terraces of pools that range in temperature from 75 to 125 degrees. It’s a serene spot, where you can soak with local families, amidst tall shade trees and butterflies.

Spa Towns

• Montecatini Terme (www.termemontecatini.it) is an enchanting Art Nouveau-styled town, easily reached by train from Florence in about an hour. It rose to fame as Italy’s top spa destination between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, and now has over two hundred spa hotels that pump in curative waters from local springs renowned for their curative effects on the liver and digestive system. My favorite place is Terme Tettuccio, a grand pavilion that sits in the beautifully landscaped park at the center of town. You’re given a cup when you enter, and can fill it up at gorgeous marble bars, mingling with the mix of hipsters in their gym clothes and pensioners steadying themselves on canes. A jazz orchestra plays on the central bandstand, there’s a caffe, bookshop, and inner flower gardens that blend to create a blissful, Old-World scene.
• Bagno Vignoni is a perfectly preserved medieval village in the Val D’Orcia. Its central piazza is a stunning rectangular thermal pool, where such greats as Saint Catherine, Saint Francis, and Lorenzo the Magnificent soaked. My favorite place to take the waters near the center is Hotel Posta Marcucci (www.hotelpostamarcucci.it), a welcoming, Old World-styled three-star, with a large outdoor thermal pool, set perfectly for gorgeous views of the valley. You can come for the day and enjoy a delicious Tuscan lunch at the restaurant, beloved by generations of locals.

Luxury Spa Hotels

For the most elegant Tuscan spa experience, spend a day or more immersed in rich history at one of these beauties. All three offer state-of-the-art treatments, blending Eastern medicine and traditional Mediterranean spa styles to balance body-mind-soul. And their dining rooms are run by top chefs, bringing in the finest wines of the region and traditional Tuscan specialties with modern twists.

• Fonteverde Spa, San Casciano dei Bagni, (www.fonteverdespa.com): How about sitting on a marble throne submerged in a warm thermal pool with hydro-jets massaging your back and the soles of your feet, while taking in a view of rolling hills of vineyards and olive groves? It’s good to be Queen here, where Grand Duke Ferdinando I de’ Medici and his family frolicked in the seventeenth century. The reactivating hydrotherapy treatments set me off to take in the sights of Florence completely renewed, an unstoppable art fiend from dawn till dusk.
• Grotta Giusti, Monsummano Terme, (www.grottagiustispa.com): Composer Verdi called the thermal cave here the Eighth Wonder of the World. It was discovered in 1849, during a renovation of this elegant villa, home of poet Giuseppe Giusti. One of the workers exploring it suddenly felt his joint aches disappear. Doctors came in to study the phenomena and a spa hotel was built soon after, attracting travelers on the Grand Tour. It’s amazing to wander through the grotto levels, named Paradiso, Purgaturio, and finally Inferno, where you settle into a lounge chair and relax with the healing vapors. There’s a large outdoor thermal pool, and the gracious hotel is surrounded by a lush, landscaped park.
• Bagni di Pisa, San Giuliano Terme, (www.bagnidipisa.com): A twenty-minute train ride from Pisa delivered me to this quaint spa town that’s centered around a stupendous villa that was the summer home of the Grand Duke of Tuscany in the eighteenth century. Now a grand spa, it was marvelous to soak in the central courtyard’s Minerva Bath, surrounded by sculpted archways and urns. There are outdoor and indoor pools, a small grotto was recently discovered, and magnificently restored frescos all around, particularly in the Shelley Bar, where I lifted a glass of prosecco to toast the view of the Leaning Tower in the distance.