Terme di Montecatini

What to expect

Montecatini Terme is the classic Italian spa town: a grid of hotels, avenues and parks built around a string of thermal buildings in the Valdinievole, between Florence and Lucca. In 2021 it joined Bath, Baden-Baden and Vichy on the UNESCO list of the Great Spa Towns of Europe.

What it is not is a place to soak in a natural hot pool. Montecatini built its name on drinking the water. Its four springs are salty and rich in sulphates, and the operator’s scientific manual gives their temperatures as 76°F24.6°C for Tettuccio, 80°F26.8°C for Regina and Rinfresco, and 92°F33.5°C for Leopoldina, the strongest. They are drawn from an aquifer 60-80 m below ground. Leopoldina also feeds the thermal mud and the treatment baths.

The spa buildings belong to Terme di Montecatini SpA, a company owned by Tuscany’s regional government and the town. It once ran around ten establishments. In 2026 it runs two.

Which buildings are open in 2026

Terme Tettuccio (Viale Verdi 71) is the one to see. It was first built in 1779 and is the grandest of the buildings: a colonnaded drinking hall with counters where the different waters are served, set in a landscaped park with old trees, a historic bar, a bookshop and a shop selling the spa’s cosmetics. The drinking cure runs every day from 8 a.m. to noon and 4 to 7 p.m. Tourist visits run every day from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. In July 2026 La Nazione reported that the Italian Red Cross runs the drinking cure here and at Redi.

Terme Redi (Via Marconi 2) is the working treatment centre, a 1960s building. This is where the thermal pool is. It runs group balneotherapy and wellness sessions in the pool, plus mud baths, massage, inhalations, physiotherapy and light gym classes in the pool on weekday mornings. Treatments use Leopoldina and Rinfresco water and Montecatini mud.

Closed: Leopoldine (closed since 2008, its restoration abandoned), Torretta, Grocco and La Salute (closed in 2023).

Excelsior is the awkward one. The official site still has a page for it, describing a drinking cure from November to April, a thermal pool and beauty treatments. But it does not appear on the 2026 opening timetable, and Italian Wikipedia says only Tettuccio and Redi remain open. Treat it as closed unless the infoline tells you otherwise.

What a day visitor can actually do

• Taste the waters at Tettuccio. This is the visit most people come for. Without a prescription, the tourist visit is the simple option. The first visit for the drinking cure has to be booked.
• Book a pool session at Redi. The group balneotherapy and wellness slots are open to the public by booking. This is the only place the company offers to put you in thermal water.
• Book a mud or massage treatment at Redi. The manual describes mud applied at about 117°F47°C, followed by about 20 minutes in a Leopoldina bath at 100°F38°C. That is warmer than the spring, so the bath water is heated.

Prices are the gap. In October 2026 the official price list said only that it was being updated, and we found no current independent price. Call the infoline on +39 0572 7781 or message on WhatsApp (+39 334 664 9087) before you go.

For Italian residents, the company offers cures under the national health service, which covers one cycle a year with a doctor’s prescription.

The sale of the spas

Behind the timetable is a long financial crisis. By 2023 the company had run up debts of about €40-45 million, much of it from the unfinished Leopoldine restoration. That year it entered a concordato preventivo, a court-supervised creditors’ procedure at the Pistoia court. A bulk sale of the spa assets at about €42 million drew no bids in July 2024, and a second attempt at €35 million failed in March 2025.

The plan has since moved to selling the buildings in lots. In July 2026, La Nazione reported that the regional government had committed to Tettuccio, Excelsior and Regina, the town to Torretta, and a private group led by Claudio Cardini of Human Company had renewed a €15 million offer for the remaining assets, including Redi, Leopoldine and La Salute. On September 22, 2026 the court liquidator put a commercial unit on Via Grocco and the former Latrine Fortuna complex up for sale.

None of this has closed Tettuccio or Redi. But hours, prices and even operators could change in 2027, so check the official site close to your visit.

Getting there

Montecatini Terme is on the A11 Florence-Pisa motorway (exit Montecatini Terme), about 41 km (25 miles) north-west of Florence and 30 km (19 miles) east of Lucca as the crow flies. Trains on the Florence-Lucca-Viareggio line stop in town. Tettuccio and Redi are a few minutes’ walk apart at the top of the town centre, next to the thermal park. A funicular climbs from town to the hilltop village of Montecatini Alto.

When to go

The two buildings open all year, with hours that can change with the season. Spring and early autumn are the pleasant times to walk the park and the town. July and August are hot in the Valdinievole. Sunday afternoons are short at Redi (the pool closes at 2 p.m.) and mud and inhalation treatments are closed on Sundays.

Where to stay nearby

The spa company has no hotel of its own, but hotels are the town’s main business, from grand belle-époque buildings on the avenues to simple family-run places near the station. The spa company links to a partner site that sells cure-and-hotel packages (curetermalitoscana.it).

Nearby stops worth adding

Grotta Giusti, about 4 km (2.5 miles) away in Monsummano Terme, has a natural thermal steam cave and an outdoor thermal pool open to day visitors, with published prices. Bagni di Lucca is about an hour north-west. Florence, Lucca and Pistoia are all easy day trips by train.

Safety notes

• Drinking cure: the strong waters are laxative and salty. Follow the spa doctor’s advice on quantity, especially with heart, kidney or blood-pressure conditions.
• Mud and hot baths: these are medical treatments. They start with a medical check.
• Heat: summer afternoons in town regularly pass 86°F30°C. Carry water while walking between buildings.