Fiuggi

In the hills just south of Rome, lies the small medieval town of Fiuggi. The obscure conglomerate of stone buildings gained renown as early as the 1300s, when Pope Boniface VIII claimed his kidney stones had been healed by the mineral waters that gushed forth from the nearby Fiuggi spring. Two centuries later they relieved Michelangelo of what he called "the only kind of stone I couldn't love." Soon the miraculous acqua di Fiuggi was being sent in bottles to all of Europe's royalty. Fiuggi water gushes out from two thermal baths and one of these: the Boniface VIII Spring is where Italians go to “take the water”. The fountains from which healing spring water is obtained are set within a large park. Locals and tourists alike used the surroundings as a meeting place for centuries to chat and discuss the news as they sip from the spring.