In his "Tractatus de balneis" (1417), the famous doctor Ugolino da Montecatini reviewed the most important Italian spa resorts; he was the first who explained the extraordinary balneal-therapeutic and hydroponic properties of the thermal waters of Montecatini.
"Just under the slopes of Montecatini there is great abundance of salty water (...). There are three baths: the first one, dating back to the earliest times (...) is visited by people (...) suffering from rheumatic pains (...). There is also a third bath (...), called "new bath", where the thermal spring is plentiful (...). Patients who drink this salty water praise the treatment (...). It marvelously treats the stomach (...) and helps to free the kidneys from any occlusion".

After the long period of the Medici's dynasty who reigned over the thermal areas of Montecatini, Peter Leopold of Lorraine, the Grand-Duke of Tuscany and future emperor of Austria, began in 1773 to build modern spa establishments. Inspired by the Habsburg model, Leopold created the thermal town named "Bagni di Montecatini".

Between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Montecatini Terme became an internationally renowned spa and a downright "garden city".
Besides health treatments, visitors have the opportunity to experience the most modern and innovative practices of thermal well-being in one of Europe's most renowned centres: "Terme Excelsior".

The modern medical-scientific research and the present therapeutic planning of the spa treatments today match the rehabilitative and precautionary treatments carried out through our waters. The aid of a pleasant environment, built on a human scale, along with the psychological enhancement of the joy of living you find here is combined with an exquisite hotel reception, thousands of recreational, artistic, sports and cultural opportunities offered in our town, in its historic hilly centre and in the surrounding Tuscan territory.

Well-being in your body and in your spirit complement each other in an effective therapy that allows you to reach the total psychological well-being that is needed more and more in today's world.