Three days ago we went to the hot springs called Bagni dei San Filippo. The first hot springs that we saw were not super hot, but when we went down, we found a second hot spring that was really hot. We saw a giant piece of calcium that had built up over the years with a hot waterfall falling down one side then gently sloping down to a river below. There were a few pools, some of which were just the cold river and some of which were the river mixed with the hot spring, but we soon found out that the best place to be was near the hot waterfall. We went and sat down on a rise where the water from the hot waterfall came down to then gently sloped down to the river. The water was warm but not too hot and we were able to sit there a while and relax. Eventually, I got too hot and went down to where the river met the hot spring and sat there playing with the calcium deposited by the water. While I was sitting around in the cold water, Mama, Papa, and Nina decided to go in the opposite direction and walk closer to the hot waterfall. The closer they got to the hot waterfall the hotter it got until they stopped (Papa got the closest) and sat down to let their feet cool off and enjoy the heat (I think). At about this time, I got bored and looked around for something to do. I saw a spot in which someone had made a shallow 3 person hot tub, that always seemed squished full of at least 4 people, by setting up a semicircle of logs against a small shelf or calcium that the water ran off. I looked around my even shallower, not very hot tub and saw a spot where most of the water ran off. I also saw a log and moved it to that spot, trying to fill up the small pool. I soon found out that it would not work and went to go back up to Mama, Papa, and Nina. I found them up very close to the hot waterfall and climbed up to them. Soon, my feet started hurting from the heat. I sat down and after about 1 second noticed a feeling like my skin was being ripped off! Ok, I guess it was not that bad, but it hurt! I also felt a sharp piece of calcium digging into my back, moved and felt a different piece. Up here, where less people had walked and sat down, the sharp edges had not been rounded out. After a very short time near the hot waterfall, I decided to go down and found Mama had done the same. She was sitting in a small pool made by a log that people had put down to rest their heads on one side. On the other was a natural bump in the calcium, with a small lip of calcium at the bottom. As I looked at the small pool, I got an idea. As I went down the slope, I remembered that people had been looking at me while I had been trying to make my small pool. I went down to the small pool, took the log that I had placed there, and brought it up to the pool that Mama was in. Again, I noticed that people were watching me, but I decided that they thought that I was going to make a spot to sit or lay down in the hot spring water and they wanted to be the first to get it once we left. I also thought that maybe they just wanted something interesting to watch. Once I got up the slope with the log, I put it down on the small lip to make a pool. The only problem was most of the water was seeping out from in between the log and the calcium so I went and got rocks, but I could not get them to fit in the right places. Then Nina came and fit the rocks in, so I went to go get more and soon we had finished the tiny pool. Mama came back and said it was amazing (in the way that parents do), but we had to go. First, Papa and Nina decided to go to a small waterfall in the river and go under it. Then we went back home.
Well… not straight back. First, we went to Montepulciano and walked around for a bit. Eventually, we convinced our parents to get us gelato. We had a piece of pizza to tide us over until dinner and went on a gelato hunt. After walking around for over an hour and looking in more than a dozen stores, we found a place with gelato and enjoyed some amazing cold-day-gelato. After some more walking and walking through a amazing old castle gate, we turned our mind to dinner, but all the stores seemed closed! So we decided to go back to the car and after a small turn around, we were on our way back home.
What did we have for dinner? Well… I had a croissant (they call them cornetto in Italy), Nina had nothing, Papa had nothing, and Mama had a smoked salmon sandwich. FUN!
