Acquasanta Terme

The town sits fifteen kilometers from Ascoli Piceno, pressed between the Sibillini to the north and the Laga ridge to the south, in a stretch of the upper Tronto valley narrow enough that the springs, the river and the mountain walls are all within reach of each other. The commune spreads across 138 square kilometers of forested ridges, its 75 frazioni scattered along the valley sides while the town itself gives its name to the whole territory, the only Marche commune with a foothold in the national park. The cure is older than the town's built center: the Roman consul Lucio Munazio Planco is said to have come here around 50 AD after treatments elsewhere failed him, and the first pools were cut into the rock at that time.

What is called the centro storico came later and took damage in the older parts of it in the 2016 earthquake, though the spa and the springs kept working through it. Upper valley and lower spa, old stone and hot water: the place has been organized around the same sulphur source since before it had a settled name for itself.