The Carlone Cascades: Wild Thermal Waters in the Hills Above Piacenza

The Carlone cascades are a hidden thermal spring in the hills above Piacenza, along the Luretta stream between Vernasca and Castell'Arquato. They are not signposted, they appear in no guidebook, they have no car park and no official trail. You find them by asking the local farmers, who have known about them forever and come here when the heat of summer demands it.

The water emerges at around 26 degrees — not boiling like the Tuscan springs, but warm and pleasant — and is rich in sulphur and calcium carbonate. It has carved three natural basins into the rock of the stream, arranged in steps: you sit in the upper pool with the water flowing down into the lower one, as in a wild Japanese onsen.

The setting is that of the Emilian hills: vineyards of Gutturnio and Ortrugo on the slopes, forests of oak and hazel along the stream, stone farmhouses scattered across the ridges. There is no one there, nothing at all — only the sound of water, the song of cicadas in summer, the smell of sulphur mingling with that of cut grass.

You arrive by parking along the dirt road that follows the Luretta and descending to the stream in a couple of minutes. The water is clear and the bottom sandy. The pools are large enough for four or five people each. Don't bring anything valuable: you leave everything on the grass of the bank.

The best time is late spring and summer, when the water temperature is pleasant and the hills are green. In autumn the pools can be submerged by the stream's floods. It combines perfectly with a visit to Castell'Arquato — one of Emilia's most beautiful borghi — and a tasting session at the wineries of the Val Luretta.

The Carlone cascades are a local secret that endures because nobody publishes it — and writing about them here is an act of trust in the reader. Treat them with respect: leave nothing behind, take nothing away, and don't tell too many people.