Bagno Vignoni / Montalcino Trip!

February 8th, 2019

"Bagno Vignoni and Montalcino are beautiful, you're going to love it" is one of the first things I heard when traveling to Bagno Vignoni and Montalcino. I had absolutely no idea what either of those places were. I usually read up about where I'm going and what there is to do.

On our way to Bagno Vignoni from my window on the bus

Bagno Vignoni is a small village outside of Florence about 2 hours out. What makes this place so special are the original sources of water that come out of a subterranean aquifer from a volcano, so the entire underground is super warm. Some of those thermal waters were used as a sort of spa by people of important stature such as: Pope Pius II, Saint Catherine of Siena, Lorenzo the Magnificent, and many others.

One of the baths in Bagno Vignoni 

We first stopped to get a cappuccino and a small pastry all together as a breakfast. Then we were told about the baths and how they were used back in the day. In the picture above you can see the steam come of the water of how hot it was. Then we started to move because there was a sort of pathway where the water going. We started to follow it and we were all in shock as to what we found.



The view of the hills of Bagno Vignoni were out of this world. I couldn't believe that something so majestic actually existed. I took a couple seconds to realize where I was: in Italy. One of the last places I thought I'd be at this point of my life time. A place that I thought was going to be impossible for me to come to. Being here also made me realize all the things I had to do to get here and remembering how much stress I went through was absolutely worth it.







and with a view like this, I had to do a mini photo shoot, so please enjoy:

Just when I thought things were over, boy was I wrong. There was one more thing for us to see. There was this stairway that lead us downwards from where we were. Most of the group had gone down there by this point, so I figured I should go down too. It was the best thing I could have done.

This was the stunning view that we got to see at the bottom of the stairs. I'm not necessarily a hiker, but it was definitely the trek back up the stairs. After this, we headed over to Montalcino another small village in Italy that is known for their wine, did we try some? of course!


We went to this castle that has now been turned into a restaurant/winery where they produce tons of wine to be shipped to places all over Europe and the USA. Here is where we were served a typical Tuscan meal, with bread, pasta, and of course, wine! Some of us were new to wine, so we were taught how to spot the quality of the wine by seeing the reflection of it on a napkin, which was something that I'd never thought about. Here are some pictures of that experience.



With the incredible Dr. Hogan, Professor
at Elon University.