Infernal Tastes and Visions of Wellness: Taking the Waters at a Tuscan Drinking Spa

by Erin E. Lynch

Abstract:

This sensory design review explores the practice of “taking the waters” at a Tuscan drinking spa (the Terme Tettuccio in Montecatini Terme, Italy).  The grandeur of the Terme Tettuccio reflects its sparkling reputation in the European spa culture of the late 19th and early 20th century, where spas emerged as cathedrals of consumption that were characterised by both sensory variety and sociability. While immersion in spa waters is a mainstay of modern leisure, the ingestion of them has largely fallen out of fashion.  Nevertheless, the drinking cure lives on in the Terme Tettuccio, where even tourists ostensibly there to consume the place with their eyes have trouble resisting a (terrible) taste.    As such, the Terme sits at the intersection of shifting wellness cultures, where the drinking cure is just as often a spectacle consumed with the eyes and ears as with the mouth and tongue.  If anything, the spa’s infernal tastes and architectural flourishes are a novelty, offering hints of a bygone era in which the sensory experience of the spa was less uniformly pleasurable but arguably more variable than the pre-packaged version that has come to dominate wellness culture in much of the West. Beyond its four hot springs, the Terme provides a veritable mixing gallery of spa sensations and sensibilities.

Keywords:

spa culture; wellness; tourism; drinking cure; sensory design

This article is forthcoming in the sensory design reviews section of the Senses and Society journal.

Figure 1 The Neoclassical exterior of the Terme Tettuccio, nestled in the heart of Montecatini Terme’s thermal park.

Figure 2 Visitors sample the drinking cure at the "mixing gallery," where taps pipe the spring water (often hot and sulfuric) into the cups and hands of wellness-seekers and tourists alike.

Figure 3 At the heart of the Tettuccio - directly opposite the mixing gallery - is the Temple of Music. The ornate roof of the orchestra stage is inscribed "Il suon che di dolcezza di sensi lega" (or "The sound that binds the senses with sweetness.")