Volterra and Larderello spas (Volterra Pisa) (see Volterra)

The town of Volterra and Larderello
Today Volterra counts about 12,500 inhabitants, 4,000 of whom live in the historical center, that is in the part of the town enclosed in its mediaeval walls.Larderello in Volterra Pisa geothermal power station, where since 1905 the inhabitants of this town have been exploiting underground vapour in order to produce electric current.
Olives, wine and cereals are the principal agricultural produce. The extravergin olive oil produced on these hills is particularly fragrant and of highest quality.
Also the volterran white truffels have become famous for their intense fragrance.

The thermal spas
La Perla Thermal spas Le Terme di La Perla
Curable diseases
Affections of the respiratory system, Gynecological ailments Rheumatic arthropaties Colitis Gastritis Gastroduodenitis Skin diseases Neuralgia Neuritis Metabolic ailments
Affezioni delle vie respiratorie Affezioni ginecologiche Artroreumopatie Coliti Gastriti Gastroduodeniti Malattie della pelle Malattie del ricambio Nevriti Nevralgie Stipsi

The water
Solfurea - alcalino - bicarbonata, stronzio - bario

Visit also: the Museum of the Geotermia - to visit, with Timetable: -
winter time : from the 15 september to 15 March from the monday to the friday from hours 8,00 to hours 12 (last income) and from hours 13,30 to hours 16,30 (last income) with closing to hours 17. Festive saturday and closed Sunday from hours 09,00 to hours 12 (last income) and from hours 13,30 to hours 17,30 (last income) with closing to hours 18.
summer time: from 16 March to the 14 september from the monday to the friday from hours 9,00 to hours 12 (last income) and from hours 13,30 to hours 17,30 (last income) with closing to hours 18. Festive saturdays Sunday and from hours 10,00 to hours 12 (last income) and from hours 13,30 to hours 18,30 (last ingresso)con closing to hours 19.

The museum currently is accommodated in an attended temporary system in that it has been restored the Palace de Larderel that will accommodate it in definitive way: through a chronological distance the museum travels over again, also by means of photographies, instruments and machinery of age, the history of I use of the geothermal energy.

They can also be seen knows it of plastics and the lagone " to it covered ": moreover, if it comes caught up a number of fifteen persons, it can be assisted of a live "soffione" and Is's guarantee to you that truly impressive what is one because the vapor but, above all, the noise is something not easy to forget.

Useful numbers
In order to contact the museum with telephone: +39 0588-67724 with fax +39 0588-22555

Lardarello history
it is at 390 m s.l.m. to the center of goes called them " Valle del diavolo " because it introduces the fumigante landscape of the soffioni with the characteristic columns vapor white women, the gigantic cooling towers of centers them electrical workers (high until 75 m.) and, above all, the ragnatela of the silver-plated ducts that covers for hundred of km. hills and the valleys and it is the main Italian center for the boric acid production and remarkable pole for the electric power production using the geothermal energy.

Larderello is risen and it has been become larger around the geothermal pools: the geothermal fields, localize to you in wrap tirrenica center-meridional of the Tuscany, are the outcome of geodynamic processes type good for relaxing know from 30 million years ago, however it can calmly be asserted that the news of the warm water existence in Tuscany was famous to the Etruschi and the Roman, but, not only, they used also present boric acid in these waters.
The Etruscans used boric acid, than it was deposited to the edges of the lagoni natural, is for druggist use is for the enamel preparation: in fact " It is gone Seals you " of the Etruscan Museum of Arezzo contain of boron, than then it was possible to reperire single in these places; the Roman used of waters for the medichal properties and indicated the place like " Aquas Volaternas " that would be from identifying itself with the Bath to Morbo near it puts into effect them Larderello.

This place had fortune also in the Middle Ages and in the Rinascimento a lot that Lorenzo the Magnificent , that it attended these baths, only held the key of a bath for if and for its family: in the Middle Ages from the lagoni natural it came extracted sulfur, the vitriol and the alum that the volterrani merchants sold in all Italy.

The first one to discover the boric acid presence in waters of the lagoni natural was in the 1777 Francisco Hoefer, director of the Pharmacies of the Granducato of Tuscany: but first tried you to produce boric acid industrially making to evaporate waters they happened alone in 1818: until then boric acid it came imported in Europe from Tibet, where it came collected on the warm water small lake edges and came called " Tinkal ", then the Arabs supplied to the transport before in Spain and then in all the European continent dandogli the name of " Buraq ". Like already said, in 1818 it began the industrial exploitation of boric acid making to evaporate boric waters in iron boilers under which a fire was ignited using the firewood, but was an expensive method because the firewood began to scarseggiare and it had to be carried from more and more far places: it was in 1827 that conte the Francois-Jacques de Larderel, been born to Vienne in France in the region of the Delfinato, invented a less expensive method using like thermal energy the heat of the vapor in substitution of the heat supplied from the firewood in order to make to evaporate boric waters. But the Larderel was not only limited to this: for this scope it constructed the Lagone Covered, that is a cupola in masonry on a lagone natural that of it collected the vapor and it let out it to a sufficient pressure for feeding thermally the boilers of evaporation of the waters boriche.Quando knows them boric were falls to you, contained a great water amount, in order to eliminate which came used, at first, a press to pressure and later on a centrifuge to vapor that, taking advantage of the pressure of the vapor, it made to fastly turn a small basket in which came immessi knows them boric: these, still humid, came made to dry in the so-called the " terraces ", that is great rooms under the pavement di.le which circulated the vapor. In the 1828 Larderel it began also the perforation, that greater boric water amount had the scope of reperire one: first it blots some of perforation came constructed in the local workshops and had the tower in wood, with the percussion that came by hand given from the laborers using winches: in the 1846 Granduca Leopoldo II of Tuscany, in acknowledgment to the work of Francois de Larderel, it imposed to the plant the name of Larderello, that it would then have identified also the country sortovi around. In 1904 Prince Ginori Conti succeeded to transform the force of the vapor in electric power being ignited the first 5 light bulbs and in 1905 she came supplied electric power for the lighting system of the factory and the country of Larderello: in 1915 entered in exercise center it them n.1 with two groups from 2750 KW of power. In 1931, 27 March, a survey succeeded to catch up the cliff tank distributing approximately 220 tonnellate/ora of vapor: the soffione, called " Soffionissimo ", constituted a so huge phenomenon to make to think that it was not possible to bridle it; with the activity of more and more emphasized perforation it increased to the electric power production and were relegated in second slowly the activities chemistries and in the 1937 the first towers of cooling in reinforced concrete were constructed that replaced those of wood and that they characterize all the landscape. Currently the new center them come fed directly from the coming from vapor from the sottosuolo and the system of feeding with secondary vapor is being abandoned.

Pisa downtown and airport
Around Pisan hills country area

Pisa downtown Pomarance San Dalmazio Volterra ...more open