Montecatini Terme is a town rich of fascination and culture, it's without dubt the capital city of the natural and thermal cures, of the culture and the relax. The town is characterized from extended green parks (the thermal park occupies 460,000 square meters), modern Spa with the more innovative technological solutions, architectures that go back to the belle époque, wonderful thermal baths decorate with frescoes in Liberty style.
Montecatini Terme is a relatively young city that has been developed between 19th and 20th century, in the past called Bagni di Montecatini, it had taken only in 1928 the actual name of Montecatini Terme. The settlement has been formed and developed around its more precious good, its thermal waters, that have beneficial property appreciated since the antiquity and developed definitively from to the age of the Granduca Leopoldo I (Pietro Leopoldo di Lorena), in fact under his rule the swampy area was drained, he began then, the construction of the thermal baths, fist was built the Bagno Regio Spa (1773, today Spa Regina), therefore the Terme Leopoldine Spa (1779) and at last was reconstructed the Tettuccio Spa (1779). The thermal baths are famous for the remarkable curative effect of waters chloride-sulfate-sodic, particularly indicated in the liver complaint, of the biliary ways and the digesting apparatus. The currently used waters are two weak water, the Rinfresco and the Tettuccio, one medium water the Regina, and two hard water, the Torretta and the Tamerici.
The visit of Montecatini Terme allows to dip itself in an atmosphere of other times, in fact the thermal center between the end of the 1800's and the beginning of the 1900's became an important international center of the Belle Epoque, attended from artists and famous personages of the age between which Gioacchino Rossini, Giuseppe Verdi, Arrigo Boito, Giulio Ricordi, Giacomo Puccini, Arturo Toscanini, Enrico Caruso, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Pietro Mascagni, Richard Strauss, Alberto Franchetti, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Umberto Giordano, Ildebrando Pizzetti, Riccardo Zandonai. This period is reflexed also in the architecture of Montecatini, inspired to the style in fashion at the age, the Liberty, starting from Piazza del Popolo, is possible to cover along the wide Tree-lined Viale Verdi a route that allows to admire the more characteristic buildings of the age, between which the Locanda Maggiore and the Gran Caffè Gambrinus inaugurated in 1931; the Politeama theatre today Cinema Teatro Imperiale; the Municipal Palace with its splendid windows, the Excelsior Cinema; the Tamerici Pavilion; the former casino and great coffee, today thermal center, Excelsior; the Terme Leopoldine that collects, in a great crater of beyond 22 meters of diameter, the water warmer than all; the Terme Torretta; and the Terme Tamerici, where the Circolo dei Forestieri has maintained its character of place of culture as center of exibitions, concerts, conventions and encounter. At the end of the tree-lined avenue the look is attracted from the imposing facade of the Terme Tettuccio. Between the 11 Spa of Montecatini, the more imposing is without a doubt that of the Tettuccio, richest of decorations, with historical rooms as the Sala del Caffé with its furnishings of age, the frescoes work of Giulio Bargellini and the landscapes of Maria Biseo it is without dubts one of the more spectacular places; the Sala della Scrittura decorated from Giuseppe Moroni; or the amazing “galleria delle bibite” (“gallery of the drinks”), with the panels in ceramics on the seasons of the life, works of Basilio Cascella. Imposing is also the Regina Spa, whose waters, collected in a circular temple, reaches a great hall preceded from a monumental porch. Other places to visit are the Theatre Kursaal Casino, of eclectic style; the villino Il Rinfresco (the Refreshment), with majolica friezes; the historical lodges like the Plaza-Locanda Maggiore, or the prestigious Grand Hotel La Pace; the house of Ruggero Leoncavallo; the Academy of Art, that has works of art realized from Galileo Chini, Renato Guttuso, Messina, Léger, Annigoni and the piano that Giuseppe Verdi played when he came in vacation to Montecatini.
USEFUL INFORMATION:
Weekly market in Montecatini Terme: Thursday
Weekly market, in Piazzale Granduca Leopoldo,
every Thursday from 8.00 to 13.30.
Tourist Information Office - Montecatini Terme
Viale Verdi 66/68
51016 Montecatini Terme
Tel. e Fax +39 0572 772244
Hours: every day
9.00-13.00 and 15.00-19.00
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