Terme di Cretone

Terme di Cretone, also known as Terme Sabine di Cretone, lies in the municipality of Palombara Sabina, at the foot of a wooded hillside about 30 kilometres from Rome, and works as a day-visit bathing park rather than a clinic. The operator describes three large pools, one of them for children, fed directly from sulphurous thermomineral springs and running on continuous exchange rather than recirculation, with a combined water surface of about 1,500 square metres. The pools carry a circuit of what the operator calls cobra and swan jets for hydromassage. The whole site covers roughly three hectares of laid-out grounds, with both paved and grassed solariums, a hot-table and bar service, changing rooms, a cloakroom and a video room.

The water is calcium-sulphurous and comes out at around 23 °C, which is close to a cool swimming temperature rather than a warm thermal bath, so the season is short: the park opens from late May to mid-September, daily from 9:00 to 18:30. The operator dates ministerial recognition of the water to 1987 and lists skin, biliary tract, stomach, arthro-rheumatic and respiratory conditions among its indications. The operator also explains the general principle behind sulphur therapy, defining a sulphurous water as one carrying at least 1 mg of hydrogen sulphide per litre and describing aerosol and endotympanic insufflation courses of ten to twelve applications; it does not, however, advertise an on-site inhalation department.

Pool areas can be booked online or at the ticket desk, and there is a massage and beauty corner with a private Jacuzzi. Public transport is via the FL1 suburban line to Piana Bella-Montelibretti and a shuttle from there.