Fall at Fosso Bianco 🤍❤️🔥🤍 pt 1 — being here with just me & nonna , my photographer for life , was the greatest blessing on my trip to Italy this week. 💦 Healing in these hot springs with her was especially potent since she just got to the clear from cancer after 2 years of chemo.Celebrating her birthday and the end of Scorpio season ~a fiery water sign~ ♏️ has been a dream come true.These hot springs are free and usually popular in Tuscany. I’ve seen this entire mineral mountain — named Fosso Bianco or “White Whale” — covered in people enjoying. 🥰 So, visiting in the off season and in the middle of the week is a good bet to have some alone time with this incredible feat of nature.Honor the waters by bringing an extra trash bag to your soak. 🙏I saw some beer bottles left along the mountain but these hot springs weren’t as trashed as many can get in America.❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
Again, an overview of what's topical on the European soaking scene. Which is preciuosly little.
So the bulk of sharing concerns some snippets from Europe's (mostly northern) sauna culture. And threats to that culture.
The Inews (Jan. 8) on when living in Rome, one baths (read soaks) in Viterbo, an hour and half from Rome:
'The water gushes from an underground volcanic spring called Bullicame and spouts from decorated stone mouths into the middle of the open-air pool, creating a gigantic jacuzzi. I’m not keen on squeezing into hot tubs with a crowd of other people, but at 2,000 square meters in size, that’s not a worry at Viterbo....In the pool, I can feel my blood circulating faster in my legs and my heartbeat slowing down as my mind and body are cleansed. After a relaxing swim, I make my way in a bathrobe and flip-flops across the thermal park, which is dotted with sun beds and comfortable lounge chairs, to the grotto. This dark, underground cave is used as a natural steam room, which can apparently unblock pores and combat acne, rheumatic diseases, sore joints and some respiratory conditions. Even though, luckily, I have no health complaints, I breathe in the vapour-rich, dense air, which wraps around my lungs like a balm while sweat droplets trickle down my arms and legs'.
Alba Balmaseda @albalmaseda hat im Fachmagazin ARQUITECTURA Y AGUA 33 einen wunderbaren Artikel zu den Heissen Brunnen und der Tätigkeit von Bagno Popolare geschrieben! Link zum Artikel findet ihr in unserer Bio – Eng. Übersetzung am Schluss des Artikels.***Baden, Switzerland has a long-standing association with its thermal waters, which have been enjoyed for their healing properties since Roman times. However, the progressive privatisation of their hot springs has left the local population without access to public bathing facilities, culminating in the closure of the last municipal bathhouse in 2012. In response, the Bagno Popolare collective launched a series of urban activism actions to recover bathing as a collective practice, combining historical research, ephemeral interventions in public spaces, and negotiation with the authorities. In 2021, this process of temporary architectures was consolidated into a permanent project called Heisse Brunnen (Hot Fountains), which returned a free, open-air thermal water infrastructure to the area. Its design, based on full-scale spatial tests and the integration of thermal water as a common good, proposed an innovative model of urban bathing. This intervention redefined the relationship between the city, the body, and water, challenging the logic that water is a mere resource that can be privatised. This article analyses how the Heisse Brunnen project materialises water as a device for encounter through architecture, exploring the historical context, the initiators of the project, the consolidation process, the design strategies, the impact on everyday life, and its potential as a model for future infrastructures. The Bagno Popolare experience raises key questions about the right to water and the role of architecture in shaping water as a common space in the urban context.***Bild: Experimente in Baden während des Lehrseminars /Stadt Wasser Körper/, Lehrstuhl Städtebau und Entwerfen, Universität Stuttgart. Studierende: Pia Bahmer, Luca Buchholz, Lingqi Cai, Marie Grüniger, Gebhard Hack, Bruno Migliavacca Santos, Katharina Plankar, Isabella Rössler, Inga Schmidt, Romi Schnitzler und Mike Stricker.📷: maik_stri
Concerning the above, also take a look at the article Balmaseda Domínguez, A. (2025) Heisse Brunnen, Baden y Ennetbaden, Suiza: El Agua Como Espacio Común - Proyecto, Progreso, Arquitectura - N33 (2025) Universidad de Sevilla.
From it's summary:
'This article analyses how the Heisse Brunnen project materialises water as a device for encounter through architecture, exploring the historical context, the initiators of the project, the consolidation process, the design strategies, the impact on everyday life, and its potential as a model for future infrastructures. The Bagno Popolare experience raises key questions about the right to water and the role of architecture in shaping water as a common space in the urban context.
Angels
Over to sauna culture.
Not often reports from Belgium. Bruxellessecrete (Nov. 11) on Belgium's premier sauna destination, Waer Waters. Translated from French:
'What makes Waer Waters unique in Belgium is its huge naturist area called "Re-Energize." It's a concept that's a huge hit in Nordic countries. Clearly, this space is designed for those who want to enjoy the benefits of a sauna in the truest sense, meaning naked . You can also relax in a large heated outdoor pool.
With winter hitting northern Europe hard this year (so it seems) suddenly practices of enjoying the cold and snow come to the fore. In the Netherlands there's a reportage from it's north, notably Zuidwolde. The Dagblad van het Noorden (Jan. 7). Translated:
'Normally, sauna-goers at Sauna Thermen Zuidwolde cool off in the outdoor plunge pool. But in these weather conditions, they're doing it in a completely different way: with a dip in the snow.
"It's really fun to do," says owner Erik Moes (57) from Meppel, laughing. He and Robbin van den Heuvel run the bathhouse in Zuidwolde. "We've actually always done this, not just because there's a lot of snow now. We're open all year round, and these weather conditions just make cooling off a little bit more fun."
Rain or shine, sauna-goers head into the outdoor garden without their swimsuits to cool off. There's plenty of laughter as they make snow angels together. The real daredevils even jump into the icy water of the pond. Winter fun is palpable. "The snow this week is actually wonderful. Normally, you cool off in an outdoor pool that feels almost as cold as the snow. It's a real revitalizer."Sauna goers at Sauna Thermen Zuidwolde have a blast in the snow. Photo: Wilbert Bijzitter
Another country under-reported. From the Slovak Spectator (Nov. 21):
'It is not often one finds oneself naked, in pitch-black darkness, sweating among strangers. Wild jungle sounds and soaring Peruvian flutes echo through the hut as a man in a toga steps toward a raised bed of stones. He ladles water from a wooden bucket onto the rocks, releasing a wave of steam and earthy, woody, floral scents that swallow the room whole. This is the start of the “jungle” sauna ritual at the Aphrodite Spa in Rajecké Teplice, Slovakia....Reflecting on the experience, it’s hard not to be drawn in by the unusual mix of theatrical luxury, natural thermal springs, and meticulous therapeutic care. The place invites you to give in — to the warmth, the ritual, and the sense that healing, even if temporary, is possible'.
Very much an advertorial to sojourn here. You could do worse.
The Inews reports on an experience of Sweden's Kallbad (Dec. 28):
'Positioned on the Øresund – the strait that connects the North Sea with the Baltic and separates Sweden from Denmark – Helsingborg is the Swedish cold bathing capital, with three bathhouses.
Each has a sauna or two, and the idea is that after sitting in the heat, the shock of the cold water will stimulate adrenaline and endorphins. The city’s annual Cold Bath Week is so popular that its sixth edition – starting on 28 January – has been extended to 12 days of bathing and sauna sessions'.
Spent the weekend in this amazing place @teepeeandspa and we are definitely coming back! #weekend #weekendescape #spa #naturespa #inthewoods #withbae #happy #teepee #hottub #collectingmemories❤️ #weekending #sauna #traveller #jetsetter #amazingplaces #backtonature #drinks #justustwo #czechgirl
Over to Ireland, another bulwark of sauna culture. The Irishnews (Nov. 23):
'Clothing-optional or nude saunas are becoming more popular in Ireland, but what does it feel like to get naked and sweat in a communal setting?
It's a very extensive article not only noting the experience but also sharing previous experiences concerning naked sauna use:
'I’m trying to listen, but my mind is nearly entirely occupied trying to learn this dance of mixed-gender social nudity. It may not require a degree in aerospace engineering to know the steps, but it is demanding the erasure of a lifetime of restrictions around men’s bodies and my own to be here'.On a visit to Ribersborg (Sweden):
It was the first time in my life I had been in the company of nude women, and it occurred to me how very few naked bodies I have seen in real life and how freeing it might have been to grow up seeing scars, wrinkles, hair, weight on bones, as marks of the living, not the failing.This feeling is backed up by research led by Keon West, a social psychologist at Goldsmiths University of London, who found that seeing real bodies, unaltered by technology, unfiltered through screens, helps to counter the negative effects of our visual culture, which advertises artificially altered bodies as the norm.Yet there is inevitable tension telling anyone that I like to sauna without clothes; I feel it even while writing this sentence. It’s not normal, and so it is strange. People sometimes cite “Catholic guilt” as the reason they could never try it, yet Ireland’s own indigenous practice of sweat-bathing is a naked one.Until the turn of the 20th century, neighbours, friends and spouses would strip off in fields and by rivers to crawl naked into stone sweathouses in search of cures from medical ailments. More than 300 of these sweathouses, or “teach allais”, are still standing around the country. They were part of people’s community infrastructure, and in the many recorded folklore accounts of people using sweathouses, nudity is not understood as transgressive but necessary to enter into these dark chambers....We are naked, but it doesn’t feel like the most important aspect of what is happening. Together, we chat with a level of intimacy that goes beyond the minutes we have known each other. Shedding fabric, being vulnerable in a safe place, seems to allow for a shedding of social barriers.Rosanna Cooney is author of Sweathouse: The New and the Ancient Irish Sauna Tradition, published by Irelandia Press
rosannacooney earlier last year (Mar. 31) on insta:
'I'm so happy to be able to share the cover of my book- Sweathouse: The New and The Ancient Irish Sauna tradition.It's being published by @irelandiapress and is out the beginning of May 2025. It's been a labour of pure love from everyone involved and I still can't quite believe I got to write it'.
There's also some added discussion from the instagram post.
Due to Rosanna Cooney's publication, RTe (May 28) dedicated a radio item:
'Rosanna Cooney talks to Claire Byrne about what saunas mean to her, their importance in various cultures across the world and the forgotten legacy of sauna culture in Ireland...."This is something that goes back much longer than the past 6 or 10 years that we’ve had sauna in Ireland. And so I started really digging into it and I went back to prehistory about 3,000 years ago."Rosanna says she came across reports of ancient sweat lodge culture on the Island of Ireland, concentrated in particular areas of the country....Physical evidence of Irish sweat lodges remains to this day, she says:"Coming up towards pre-famine, 17th/18th Century, we had these stone domes that are still scattered around the country. You can still go visit them. You can crawl inside them, exactly where people would have crawled into them a few hundred years ago."
Finally, a personal account on German sauna culture from the viewpoint of an employee, this all on Reditt (Jan. 3). He/she contrasts habits from the US with what's usual affair in Germany.
'So, I think German Spas are kind of known around the world. The whole "Aufguss" technique comes from here and the mixed-sex, clothing-not-an-option rules seem to be mostly German'.
Outrage
And then we come to the less savory, the final section. Read and weep. And we'll sign off with the signatory French soak.
And then we come to the less savory, the final section. Read and weep. And we'll sign off with the signatory French soak.
UK's Daily Mirror (Nov. 28) picks up on this the story concerning images taken in a sauna / wellness complex in Germany:
'The contradiction has caused national disbelief. Germany is known for its sometimes extremely strict privacy rules on CCTV footage, data storage and image rights — yet those protections fall apart the moment a woman steps into a sauna where everyone is naked.Legal experts say the law is absurdly outdated, based on pre-smartphone definitions that no longer reflect reality. A 2008 ruling confirmed that a public sauna is not a “protected space”, and prosecutors still rely on that decision today....Now, victims are fighting back. Marleen’s case has given fresh momentum to a growing movement demanding reform.The outrage further escalated after one young woman Marleen Maxeiner posted a video online describing how she was ogled and followed by a man inside a sauna facility.In an interview shared by the German broadcaster RTL, Marleen said she realised she was being watched and decided to stand up for herself. Her deeply personal account sparked a swell of support for her on Instagram, with thousands praising her for refusing to stay silent'.
A later article from Planet Nude (Dec. 2) sums it up:
'A new petition in Germany is drawing national attention to a legal gap that leaves people vulnerable to being secretly filmed while nude in saunas and public showers. Launched by Rebecca and Anne, the two women at the center of the case, the campaign urges lawmakers to amend § 201a of the German Criminal Code, or create a new provision entirely, to criminalize non-consensual nude recordings in semi-public nudity settings.Their petition, hosted on innn.it and now signed by more than 30,000 people, began after the pair discovered they had been covertly filmed while naked in a sauna earlier this year. According to their account, the man who recorded them admitted to the act, and police seized his phone, which reportedly contained recordings of other nude women as well. But weeks later, prosecutors closed the case. The reason stunned them: under current law, a sauna does not qualify as a “protected space.”That limitation stems from § 201a StGB, which prohibits unauthorized recordings that violate a person’s intimate privacy—but restricts that protection to places courts define as private, controlled, and shielded from outside view. Despite the deeply personal nature of nudity in German sauna culture, wellness facilities often fall outside that definition. As a result, voyeuristic filming may be morally outrageous yet still fall through the cracks of current law'.
It can actually be worse. Weekend.at (Dec. 18) reports management action concerning some questionable incidents in the Salzburger sauna Paracelsus (see also Salzburger.at, Dec. 18). Translated:
'Specifically, more than 15 known incidents are mentioned. These include reports of swingers, exhibitionist behavior, and men allegedly staring at or harassing other guests. The allegations are causing considerable anxiety, particularly among female visitors'.
Also the same kind of incidents, but this time reported (Der Standard.at, Dec. 1) from Vienna has lead to many more being reported to the same news outlet (Der Standard.at, Dec. 16):
'An article about this incident prompted several further reports from women about masturbating sauna patrons and attempts by men to drive women away – in the Amalienbad sauna as well as in other wellness facilities in Vienna and elsewhere. The Vienna Baths Authority (MA 44) announced it would take action. "There is absolutely no tolerance for sexual harassment," said MA 44 spokesperson Susanne Mederer-Schäfer.And indeed: When a male sauna visitor recently masturbated in front of women at the Favoriten indoor swimming pool, the supervisors and lifeguards alerted the police. The police arrived quickly and found the man still present: He was ordered to leave the Amalienbad. The Vienna police confirmed this sequence of events....According to Kussyk, an important aspect of the police intervention at the Amaliensauna was that it wasn't the harassed female sauna patrons who were driven away, but rather the disruptive male sauna patron who had to leave the premises. The occupation of public spaces by boys or men, while girls and women retreat in fear, is a demonstration of male power. "This starts in school and often continues beyond that."However, a number of younger women are apparently no longer willing to tolerate this. They are demanding their right to be safe from harassment, even in a mixed sauna. This is extremely positive. "It is unacceptable when women restrict their freedom of action out of fear of assault," says Kussyk. This also includes the advice to go to the sauna on International Women's Day – as was frequently suggested in comments on previous articles on the topic'.
Toda la verdadUna verdad pensada no es una verdad. Tan solo se materializa cuando es verbalizada.Pero si nadie te está escuchando sigue sin ser una verdad. La verdad, solo se convierte en verdad cuando es compartida: cuando otra persona, además de ti, la escucha, la lee y la integra.Mi verdad es que quiero encontrarte, o por lo menos quiero dejar de sufrir por no saber dónde estás.He aprendido a vivir sin ti pero aún cuando te apareces en recuerdos sigo teniendo el mismo sentimiento: estoy loca, profunda y completamente enamorada de ti.Me niego a pensar que nunca más volverás; de ahí la raíz de mi insatisfacción.Nunca fui buena soltando. Se me da mejor patalear y soy number one proclamando aquello de que la esperanza nunca se pierde. Pero asumo que a veces me hace más mal que bien.Algo fue de X. En algún lugar se escondió, o tal vez está más cerca de lo que yo creo.Tal vez no hay nada que buscar; simplemente debo enfocar bien y aparecerá delante de mí (?).Sé que la vida es aniccā pero una persona con apego se rebota mil veces con aniccā porque para ella las despedidas son igual a caca de la vaca y los cambios son igual a ansiedad.Y lidiar con eso sí que es FOREVER.Debo confesarte que cuando te marchaste llegó otra persona. Enseguida me hice con ella, pues la sentí muy familiar desde el principio.Aún estamos conociéndonos, descubriéndonos.Me encantaría presentártela, creo que haríamos un buen equipo.Sí.Quién sabe.Igual, algún día, somos 3 en la cama peleándonos por el mismo lado, y en la mesa, intentándonos sentar en la misma silla.Quién sabe.
