Sunday, October 29, 2017

Heated nymphs


Despite the relative nearness to one of the earth's most active volcanoes, the Etna, the rest of the island of Sicilia (Sicily) has not much geothermal activity. 
So it's slightly surprising to find out that near the ancient grounds of Segesta on the western part of the island, a few hot springs are to be found.

Ancient? Segesta is the name given to a Greek settlement about 20 km inland from the north coast. Not to be outdone by others within the Greek community, Segesta contained a temple complex as well as a mountain top located amphitheater, both having been able to withstand the ever changing world.
In the brief websites I skimmed through, there's little evidence concerning the reason why the site is inland which seems a bit strange. Other than coincidence. 


Initially I also had trouble finding a possible link between ancient Segesta and the nearby hot springs, possibly the link (read existence) is from later than that period?
Wikipedia comes to the rescue and has a page on Segestan thermal baths: 
'The first Greeks living in western Sicily related the phenomenon of the formation of hot waters to a mythological event, according to which the heat of the river waters had been emitted thanks to a fluvial god’s will, Crimiso, to let heat the nymph Egesta, escaped from Troy, get worm as she was unconscious on the river bank, and that later became his wife.[1] They had a son, Acestes, who founded Segesta and gave her mother’s name to it.[2] 
The historian Diodorus Siculus tells about Heracles’ trip: while he was going to Erice he met the Egestee nymphs who, in order to help him to recover from fatigue, made Egestan (or Segestan)[3] hot water springs appear on the surface'.
Not happy
Terme Segestane is the name of the commercial entity, complete with website.
It doesn't look too special: a large 25m pool, a smaller pool and some inside baths. 
Pool temperatures range from 37-39°C, though it notes that the 3 sources emit waters of 44-46°C. 
It didn't look too busy on both occasions we passed the terme.  
A visit is priced at €9 entrance, it seems pretty hefty for what you get.

Reviews from Tripadvisor average a 3.5 stars rating, based on 198 reviews, 90% in Italian, no. 231 of activities in the Tràpani province. 
Many Tripadvisor reviewers are kind enough, though there's this recent one: 
'The place is kind of old and bad maintained, feels like to be in public sauna in North Korea. The staff is not kind at all, they do not smile and have an arrogant expression on their face, maybe they are not happy of working there'.
Not too far away (about 1 km, but with complete different access) is the thermal establishment of Gorga.  
Tripadvisor reviewers rate this even lower: 3 stars (15 reviews). 
From pictures it does look more weary than Terme Segestane. Sourced waters are deemed hotter (51°C).

Wikipedia's entry notes the following:
'Near the Segestan baths there are two thermal plants:
  1. Terme Gorga ([town of] Alcamo):[5] in contrada Gorga, at about one kilometre from Alcamo Diramazione railway station; the thermal waters near this plant, are concentrated in a natural basin among clay material and are alkaline-sulphuric; they have a temperature of about 49°C and with a water flow of 80 litres a second. The plant is located inside an old mill restored about 50 year ago.[6] 
  2. Terme Segestane (Castellammare del Golfo):[7] this plant is located in contrada Ponte Bagni where the mineral waters gush out at the temperature of about 47°C and with a water flow of about 110 litre a second. The treatments provided here are mud baths, grottoes, massages, hydromassages, aerosol inhalations and irrigationns.[6]'
Boons
Terme Segesta Libere / Terme naturali di Segesta is the name given to the natural source located on the west side of a small river (Fiume Caldo). It's located directly opposite the high banks on which Terme Segestane is settled. The former also lets natural waters overflow into said river.

Italia by Natalia website has good and complete info on getting here, following them it's impossible to miss. More introduction:
'About 42km east of [city of] Trapani and about 8 km south of [town of] Castellammare del Golfo, almost at the foot of known and described in every guide archaeological sites of Segesta, from the ground takes hot spring baths. As usually happens in such places next to hot spring was created hotel with SPA which use a boon of nature, but for the average traveler with limited resources the most important information is that just behind the hotel, in the bushes surrounding a small ravine with high, travertine rocks in ivory and pink, flows a small river. To that river, flows down water from hot spring, but firstflows through partially artificially formed little puddle, where locals and a few initiate tourists with delight joy dip in the hot water with temp. +47°C'.
Using her near-perfect directions, finding the terme is a breeze. Parking is a bit makeshift, there's a larger lot at the bottom of the road, while you can also park earlier on a higher terrain bordering an olive orchard. To cross the stream you can hop across a couple of boulders or (as was the case on our second visit) two wooden pallets managed to bridge the waters.

We visited on weekdays, once earlier on Tuesday, once at sunset on a Friday. On the first visit there was only one car, though more visitors dribbled in while we were there. On the Friday, many a visitor was just packing up.

After crossing the stream, it's then a 150m walk to a large sun-soaked pool underneath a cliff. 
Waters here are very hot, well over 40°C
While there, the increasing gaggle of men were soaking and discussing passionately, I'd presume politics but it could just as well be what's on offer at the local baker. 


The surroundings of this pool and the site itself are cleanish; there does seem to be some effort to keep clean.

As said, this pool sits below a cliff from which the waters emanate. The cliffs are roughly 15-20m high and make this an outer worldly place. It's just the soakers and the gushing stream.

Follow this stream upwards, the small canyon narrows. On the far side are smaller pools coming from the Terme are equally enticing, each with piping hot water and the possibility to cool down in the adjacent stream.


Soaking is excellent in whatever of the pools. 
Au-natural bathing is probably less customary (esp. if you only check out instagram photo's), probably more so in the bigger pool, though I can imagine it's a great place for a night time skinny dip.

As is habitual, there's not much English info beyond already offered above. A better source of info in Italian is the gogoterme website.

Montenari et. al. (2015) note that the sources temperatures are 45-50°C, though this could also apply to both official hot springs, i.e. Gorga and Segestane.

Besides the ancient ruins of Segesta, the town of Castallammare del Golfo is worth a visit as well as the nature reserve of Zingaro. Note that this reserve is (as are the Segesta ruins) well and truly on the tourist trail: you'll not the only one. 


Notes:
Montanari, D., C. Albanese, R. Catalano, A. Contino, M. Fedi, G. Gola, M. Iorio, M. La Manna, S. Monteleone, E. Trumpy, V. Valenti & A. Manzella  (2015). Contour map of the top of the regional geothermal reservoir of Sicily (Italy). Journal of Maps. 10.1080/17445647.2014.935503.

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