Terme di Cotilia

The Terme di Cotilia are closed. The facility, Parco Cotilia Terme, is on Via Salaria at kilometer 102, in Castel Sant’Angelo, in the province of Rieti: the property is private and the mining concession belongs to the Lazio Region. As of September 2026 you can't go in and there is no ticket to buy. The park's website announces renovation work and an upcoming opening with no date, with the contacts 392 4444318 and info@termecotilia.it.

Those who come up from Rome all the way here find three things that remain open to common sense and curiosity, however. The ancient name of the place, Aquae Cutiliae, tied to the death of the emperor Vespasian in AD 79. The remains everyone calls the Baths of Vespasian, which can be visited only by appointment. And Lake Paterno, the Lacus Cutiliae that Varro called the navel of Italy. The modern facility, today, is the least interesting part of the trip.

The state of the facility, the contacts and the visiting arrangements for the Roman remains reported here come from the sources consulted as of September 29, 2026: the Superintendency's page on the Baths of Vespasian, the statements of the mayor of Castel Sant’Angelo published in February 2026 and the Rieti press published up to September 28, 2026. Here the news changes through announcements and denials, so before leaving call and have everything confirmed.

Where it is and what you actually see

Cotilia is not a town. It is a stretch of the Velino valley along the Salaria, between Cittaducale and Antrodoco, where the valley floor narrows between the Reatini Mountains and the Nuria ridges. The state road is the same one the Romans called the salt road, and the kilometer markers along it give an honest measure of the distance from Rome, which is covered in an hour and a half by car without traffic.

On the edge of the Salaria you see the gate and buildings of the facility, the park with its trees, the old signs. Next to them are the porchetta stands, which stayed open when the water stopped running. The public sulfur-water fountains, which for decades filled the bottles and jugs of passersby, are dry according to the local press. Those who come for the water find a silent tap.

A short distance away, on the Cittaducale side, are the Roman remains that the Superintendency calls the Baths of Vespasian: terraces in masonry, a large basin cut into the rock, an L-shaped corridor and a nymphaeum with an apse. A little farther on is Lake Paterno, small, round, deep, fed by springs. Three places within a short radius, with three owners and three different access rules.

What you don't see: the inside of the facility, the pools, the treatment rooms, the old restaurant and the hotel, all closed. The Roman ruins stay behind a fence outside the visits by appointment. Those who imagine a day of thermal bathing must pick another destination. Those who accept a place where the history is more interesting than the present, instead, find material for a whole afternoon.

The state of the facility in 2026: closed, and for how long

The sharpest reconstruction was made public by the mayor of Castel Sant’Angelo, Luigi Taddei, in a reply published on Format Rieti on February 25, 2026. According to the Municipality, for 13 years the structure has no longer guaranteed the services for which it is accredited, above all those of a health nature. The list of what is missing is long: mud treatments, water rehabilitation, aerosol, inhalations, use of the sulfur water, restaurant, hotel, bar and the related jobs.

On the same occasion the Municipality explained that it had asked the Lazio Region to revoke the mining concession and for the possibility of drawing and managing the sulfur water directly as a public body. The lawyer of the owning company, according to the same account, replied that the Region can grant it but that the outcome is not a given. At the end of September 2026 the press reported that a regional step was still awaited.

Announcements of reopening have not been lacking. In 2019 the news spoke of modernization work and a postponed opening. In the fall of 2024 the company announced a restart from October 1, picked up by the Rieti newspapers in November in tones of rebirth. In June 2025 the same outlets wrote that the baths were still closed, and in November 2025 they spoke of progress and the hope that the water would flow again.

The most recent article is from September 28, 2026, on the 7colli site: it says that the thermal park's website shows the words upcoming opening with no date, that the fountains along the Salaria no longer give water and that on September 20 a user brought the problem up again on social media. The picture, then, is this: facility closed, no documented public tender, no announced sale, an open administrative dispute among Municipality, Region and owner.

On this the position runs against the chorus of the valley. The regret for the old baths is understandable, but Cotilia has not lost only a facility: for years it has stopped telling the story of the Aquae Cutiliae, Varro's lake and the villa of the Flavians, which are worth more than any swimming pool. Even on the day the facility reopens, those arriving from Rome will do well to start from there, not from the pools.

A curiosity about the Terme di Cotilia

The center of Italy, for the ancients, was here. Pliny the Elder, in the Natural History, reports that Marcus Terentius Varro considered the lake of Cutilia, with its floating island, the navel of Italy. Varro was born in Rieti and knew the territory better than anyone else in Rome. The Lacus Cutiliae of the Latin authors is today recognized in Lake Paterno, a few minutes from the facility.

The curiosity becomes almost a parochial contest. Rieti has claimed for centuries the title of center of Italy and celebrates it in Piazza San Rufo, where every visitor has their picture taken next to the marker that commemorates it. But the ancient source that gives weight to that title speaks of the lake, not the city. The people of Rieti know this perfectly well and it gets a smile, from one town of the valley to another.

On the floating island there is more than one ancient text. Besides Pliny, Seneca speaks of it in the Natural Questions, as does the Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who takes up Varro and describes a lake sacred to Victory with a little island that moves with the wind. What the documents say is the existence of a mobile plant mass. What tradition says is the sacredness of the place. The rest, today, is story.

The Municipality of Castel Sant’Angelo dedicates two pages of its website to the lake and the goddess Vacuna. Vacuna was a Sabine deity, linked by ancient scholars to Victory, and local tradition ties her to the waters of Cutilia. Those looking for the island today won't find it: there is no reliable report of a floating island on the present lake, and anyone promising you can see it is selling an ancient suggestion as an attraction.

Something nobody tells you about the Terme di Cotilia

The water that made the place famous, according to the ancient account, helped kill the emperor. Suetonius, in the life of Vespasian, writes that the emperor, struck by slight ailments in Campania, returned to Rome and then headed toward Cutilia and the countryside of Rieti, where he was accustomed to spend every summer. There, to the already heavy illness, was added the very frequent use of cold water, which ruined his intestines too.

The Latin text says Cutilias ac Reatina rura, ubi aestivare quotannis solebat. Not a word about baths, pools or cures. Suetonius adds that Vespasian, though bedridden, kept receiving embassies, and that when the dysentery brought him to exhaustion he said that an emperor must die on his feet, imperatorem stantem mori oportere. He died while trying to get up, held by those around him, on June 23 of 79.

The version that circulates in guides, that of the emperor who comes to Cotilia for a cure and dies at the baths, simplifies quite a lot. The document says habitual summer stay and cold water drunk to excess, not a stay at a spa. The Superintendency itself, in the archaeological site's entry, speaks of a journey to treat a fever with the local waters: a possible reading, but Suetonius's text puts the emphasis elsewhere, on habit and excess.

Shortly before, again according to Suetonius, Vespasian had joked about his own end with a line that became famous: vae, puto deus fio, oh dear, I think I'm becoming a god. It was an allusion to the deification that the senate granted to dead emperors. A man able to laugh at his own apotheosis, in a country villa in his Sabina, far from the marbles of the Palatine. That is the scene, and it needs no embellishment.

The Aquae Cutiliae and the so-called Baths of Vespasian

Aquae Cutiliae was the Roman name of the locality, a station on the Salaria marked on ancient itineraries. The cold, mineralized springs were already known to Latin authors: the Superintendency recalls that Vitruvius and Pliny speak of them. Pliny describes them as ice-cold, able to attack the body almost with a bite. These are words of a naturalist of the first century, not a medical indication, and should be read that way.

The Salaria explains the position. It was the road that carried salt from the mouth of the Tiber toward the Sabina and then toward the Adriatic, and in the Cutilia stretch it went up the Velino valley between walls that narrow. A rest station with abundant water, a day's march from Reate, was an obligatory point for travelers, herdsmen and officials. The villas of the Sabine nobility came later, on the terraces above the road.

The remains everyone calls the Baths of Vespasian are in the municipality of Cittaducale, in the locality of Caporio Cesoni, on Via delle Terme di Vespasiano, with no street number. The parking indicated by the Superintendency is at kilometer 87 plus 900 of the Salaria state road, in the direction of Rome. They are therefore not in the municipality of Castel Sant’Angelo like the modern facility, even though the distance between the two is minimal and the history is the same.

The ministry's entry describes a complex laid out on several terraces, with a large basin of about 60 meters by 24 on the second terrace, cut directly into the rock, an L-shaped corridor interpreted as a cryptoporticus, a quadrangular nymphaeum with an apse, circular niches and exedrae, a brick basin with a cocciopesto floor. The excavation campaigns run from the 1960s to the 1980s, with resumptions in 2003, 2007 and 2011.

The name baths is a convention. Some regional repertories speak of baths or villa of Vespasian, and the uncertainty is legitimate: a large basin, a nymphaeum and a cryptoporticus fit as well in a thermal complex as in the summer residence of a senatorial family. That it was precisely the villa where the emperor died is tradition, not document. Suetonius does not name a building, and no inscription found on the spot names it.

Visits are by appointment only. The Superintendency publishes its switchboard, 06 67233000, and that of the Municipality of Cittaducale, 0746 601044, together with the contacts of municipal administrators. Prices and hours are not published. Outside arranged visits the site is not open to free access, and the only correct way to see it is to book. Don't enter where there is a fence, even if the gate looks ajar.

Lake Paterno, the Lacus Cutiliae of the ancients

Lake Paterno is small, almost circular, surrounded by marsh vegetation and fed by springs. It is near the village of Paterno, and the Municipality of Castel Sant’Angelo presents it among the places of its territory. This is the basin that scholars identify with the Lacus Cutiliae of Varro and Pliny. Seen from the shore it looks like little. Its fame is all in the texts, and you have to arrive knowing it.

On access the published rules are few. The Municipality does not indicate a schedule, a ticket or a managing body for a visiting route, and tourist guides describe a free approach from the road and a walk along the bank. Fences, swimming bans or authorizations do not appear to be published on an official page. Those with doubts should call the Municipality before leaving, and respect any sign they find on site.

On the lake it's best to carefully separate the three levels. The documents, that is Pliny, Seneca and Dionysius, speak of a sacred lake, a mobile plant island and Varro's judgment on the center of Italy. Local tradition adds the cult of Vacuna and the idea of a sanctuary of the waters. Legend, which circulates mostly online, speaks of bottomless depths and Sabine mysteries: these are stories, not data, and no published measurement confirms them.

The advice is blunt: at Lake Paterno you look, you don't swim. The spring waters are cold, the bottom drops quickly and no one watches the shore. The fact that some site calls it suitable for swimming is not equivalent to a municipal ordinance. The same goes for fishing, which requires the permits provided by regional regulations. Keep dogs on a leash and take away everything you brought.

Those arriving with the idea of the center of Italy should know that on site there is no monument recalling it with the same emphasis as Rieti. There is a lake, a low-mountain landscape, the Salaria running just above. For those who love the wetlands of the Rieti area the natural comparison is with the Lungo and Ripasottile Lakes Reserve, a remnant of the ancient Lacus Velinus, which has trails and observation points for birdwatching.

My advice for visiting the Terme di Cotilia

Don't set out for the facility. Set out for the Aquae Cutiliae, that is, for the historic landscape that contains them, and use the closed baths as a landmark on the Salaria. The sensible plan is one: an arranged visit to the Roman remains, a walk to Lake Paterno, lunch, afternoon in Cittaducale or in Rieti. Call the Municipality of Cittaducale at least two weeks ahead and ask for day, time and meeting point.

Choose a weekday outside the holidays. Visits by appointment depend on the availability of municipal staff or volunteers, and on long weekends and in August the answer is slower. Spring and early autumn are the right season: in summer the Velino valley can be muggy at the bottom and cool as soon as you climb, in winter fog on the lake is frequent and the meadows are soaked.

On the phone ask precise questions. Ask who accompanies the visit and how long it lasts, if you pay and how, where you leave the car, if the route is suitable for people with walking difficulties, if the appointment is canceled in case of rain. For an organized group ask for the maximum number of participants. The answers change from one year to the next, and a written confirmation by email saves you from finding the gate closed.

Walking shoes and drinking water brought from home. The sulfur-water fountains along the Salaria, according to the latest available report, don't dispense, and around the Roman remains there is no refreshment point. Those traveling with small children should know that the terraces of the ruins have changes in level, low walls and unprotected edges. The guided visit solves the problem, because it takes you only where it is safe to pass.

One last warning, the most important. The gate of the thermal facility is not an invitation. Even if the park appears unattended, even if photos taken inside circulate online, it is a closed private property, and inside there are empty pools, unmaintained structures and systems stopped for years. Look at it from the road, photograph it from the sidewalk and move on. No story about the baths is worth a fall into a swimming pool with no water.

How to get in, who runs it and how much it costs

You cannot enter the thermal facility today, and there is no official channel selling admissions, treatments or wellness days. The property is private, the mining concession is regional, the Municipality of Castel Sant’Angelo has asked to manage the water directly. Any site offering you a thermal package at Cotilia for 2026 should be taken with great caution: before paying, ask for written confirmation of the opening.

For the Roman remains the channel is the public one: the Superintendency, at the switchboard 06 67233000, and the Municipality of Cittaducale, at the number 0746 601044, which appear in the ministry's entry as the reference for visits by appointment. Fees and hours are not published, so ask for them by phone. There are no products on booking platforms dedicated to this site, and no agency sells a ticket for the Baths of Vespasian.

Lake Paterno has no ticket and no visit manager who publishes rules or hours. The institutional reference is the Municipality of Castel Sant’Angelo. Parking around the lake is not regulated on an official page: leave the car where it doesn't block farm accesses and gates, and don't enter the fenced meadows, which in this valley are pastures and private properties.

For those who still look for a thermal bath on the same day, the honest answer is that in the Rieti area today there is no ready alternative. The working baths nearest to Rome are elsewhere: the Acque Albule at Bagni di Tivoli and the Terme di Fiuggi have separate pages, with status and conditions to be verified with their respective operators.

The sulfur water and the question of free pools

The operator described the Cotilia water as sulfurous and used it for mud treatments, inhalations, aerosol and water rehabilitation, inside a structure accredited for health services. Composition, temperature, indications and contraindications are not currently available on an active operator page, and for this reason we don't report them. Healing properties presented as fact, without a readable label or authorization, we don't write.

There are no documented free pools. Pages circulate online that speak of free baths at Cotilia, but no public source, municipal or regional, indicates a natural pool open for bathing, with an operator, rules and maintenance. Until proven otherwise they don't exist, and it isn't worth looking for them along ditches or on private land in the valley, where the water that surfaces is that of drainage channels.

The only public access to the water was that of the fountains on the Salaria. The Rieti press reports that in November 2025 the owner said it was willing to restore them, and that at the end of September 2026 they were still dry. The Municipality has asked the Region for permission to draw the sulfur water and manage it on its own. If the request succeeds, this will be the first concrete development to check.

In the news there is also a report from readers, published by a Rieti newspaper, according to which in a recent phase the water supply was reduced to a minimum and the smell of sulfur almost absent. It is an observation by citizens, not an analysis, and we report it for what it is worth. It does say something useful, though: Cotilia's problem concerns not only a stalled management but also the state of the water intakes.

Another well-known fact, yet rarely cited

The Flavians were Sabines, and the Colosseum was built by a man from this valley. Suetonius writes that Vespasian was born on November 17 of AD 9 in a small village of the Sabina beyond Rieti, called Falacrine, which tradition places in the territory of present-day Cittareale, farther upstream along the Salaria. Everyone knows it. Almost no one, though, connects it to Cotilia.

The thread is evident on paper. Vespasian is born in the upper valley, spends every summer in the countryside of Cutilia, dies here. His son Titus, again according to Suetonius, fell ill setting out toward the Sabina and died in the same villa as his father, in September of 81. Two emperors end their lives in the same country house near Rieti. Rome built for them the Flavian Amphitheater and the Arch of Titus.

The dynasty that put the empire back on its feet after the chaos of 69 was a provincial family, of equestrian rank, with a grandfather who was a collector and a father who was a tax contractor. Vespasian never hid his origins, and his passion for the Rieti summer is the sign of a man coming home. Those who visit the forums look at the Flavians as an imperial dynasty. Here you understand where they came from.

A second known and rarely cited fact concerns the name. Paterno, according to a very widespread popular explanation, would recall the pater, that is, the paternal villa of the Flavians. It is an etymology to be taken with tongs: there are no ancient documents that support it, and similar place names are found all over Italy with no emperor in between. As a local tradition it has its strength. As historical proof it doesn't hold.

The right photo to take at the Terme di Cotilia

The right photo is not the facility. It is Lake Paterno from the shore, early in the morning, with the still surface reflecting the woods and the peaks of the Reatini Mountains behind. In autumn the marsh vegetation turns rust-colored and the contrast with the dark water works. Frame it horizontally, keep the horizon line low and let the reflection take up half the frame.

The second image is the large basin of the Baths of Vespasian, if you manage to get in with the guided visit. Stand on the short side, at the height of the edge, and capture the length of the basin cut into the rock: 60 meters are only understood in perspective. Ask the guide where you can stand. The terraces have walls that look solid and aren't always, and a step back to frame better is the classic way to get hurt.

For those who tell the trip on social media there is a third honest framing: the porchetta stands with the dry fountain in the foreground. It is the summary of today's Cotilia, a place where the road still lives and the water doesn't. Always ask permission before photographing people at the counter, and keep the license plates of parked cars out of the picture.

Of the facility, if you really want a keepsake, the shot from the road is enough: the gate, the sign, the park behind. It says everything about the current situation without need for more. Don't climb over, don't stick the lens between the bars, don't fly drones over private property. The photos of abandoned interiors you find on social media were taken by entering where one shouldn't.

A note on light. The valley runs in a northeast direction, and the midday sun flattens everything. The lake does best in the first two hours after dawn, the ruins in mid-afternoon, when the raking light brings out the texture of the masonry. With an overcast sky the lake photos go flat, but those of the stones improve. Choose the time of the guided visit with this in mind.

How to get there from Rome

By car you take the Salaria from the Grande Raccordo and follow it to Rieti, then beyond, toward Antrodoco and L’Aquila. It is about 90 kilometers, an hour and a half on normal days, more on Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons. The parking for the Roman remains, according to the Superintendency, is at kilometer 87 plus 900 in the direction of Rome.

By public transport the route is longer. Cotral connects Roma Tiburtina with Rieti along the Salaria, and from Rieti there are runs toward Cittaducale and Antrodoco that travel the valley. Stops, frequencies and times should be checked on the Cotral website the day before, because on holidays and in August they change a lot. Those who don't drive must allow for at least one change and a final stretch on foot or by taxi.

The train doesn't help. Rieti is on the line that connects Terni and L’Aquila, and from Rome there is no direct rail link: you go through Terni, with overall times that exceed those of the bus. For a day at the Aquae Cutiliae the car remains the only really convenient solution, especially if you want to link the ruins, the lake and a nearby town without depending on the schedules of the intercity runs.

Those using public transport can turn the limit into an advantage and base themselves in Rieti. The city has services, hotels and restaurants, and from there the Cotilia valley is reached with an intercity run or by taxi. This way the visit by appointment to the Roman remains becomes a half day, and the rest of the time is split between the historic center of Rieti and the lakes reserve, without racing for the last bus.

On the Salaria pay attention to stops. The state road in the Cotilia stretch has heavy traffic, curves and poorly signed pull-offs, and stopping on the verge for a photo of the baths sign is a terrible idea. Use the real parking areas, the parking indicated for the Roman remains or the open areas by the stands, and cross on foot only where visibility is good.

Some important events that happened here in history

The origins, according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, are mythical: the territory around Rieti was supposedly inhabited by the Aborigines, and Cutilia appears among their centers, near the sacred lake. That is what the text says. Tradition made it a cradle of the Italic peoples, legend a place of migrations and oracles. No excavation has so far yielded an archaic settlement identifiable with Dionysius's Cutilia.

In 290 BC Manius Curius Dentatus conquers the Sabina for Rome and starts the reclamation of the Rieti plain with the cut that carries the waters of the Velino toward the Nera, at the origin of the Marmore Falls. The date of the hydraulic work is debated among historians. From then on the valley enters the Roman orbit and the Salaria becomes its backbone.

In AD 9 Vespasian is born at Falacrine, in 79 he dies in the countryside of Cutilia, on June 23 according to Suetonius. In September of 81 his son Titus dies in the same villa. For two years the Velino valley is the place where two reigns end.

In 1308 Robert of Anjou, then Duke of Calabria and heir to the throne of Naples, founds Cittaducale, a new town whose name recalls his title, on the northern border of the Kingdom. For five centuries the Cotilia valley floor remains a frontier land between the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples, and the Salaria is a road of customs posts and transhumance. The border explains much of the secluded character of these towns.

In the 20th century come the archaeological excavations, between the 1960s and the 1980s, then the campaigns of 2003, 2007 and 2011. In the same century the modern facility is born, which the mayor describes as half a century of private management by one family. From 2012 the services shrink, in February 2026 the Municipality asks the Region to revoke the mining concession.

The last years are a sequence of announcements. In April 2019 the Abruzzo and Rieti press reported a postponed opening after modernization work. On October 1, 2024 the company announced the restart, in November 2024 the newspapers spoke of a reopening. In June 2025 the baths were still closed, in November 2025 there was hope that the water would flow again. In September 2026 the fountains were still dry.

Who has passed through the Terme di Cotilia

Titus Flavius Vespasianus, emperor from 69 to 79. He came here every summer, writes Suetonius, and here he died at the age of 69, amid embassies received in bed and jokes about his own deification. The greatest figure tied to Cotilia is also the most down-to-earth: a provincial general who came to the throne after a civil war, who in summer went back to his Sabina to drink cold water.

Titus, the son, emperor for a little over two years after his father. Suetonius tells that he fell ill with fever at the first stage of the journey toward the Sabina, went on in a litter and died in the same villa where Vespasian had died. He is the emperor of the eruption of Vesuvius and the inauguration of the Colosseum, and he ends here, at 41, in a country house of the Velino valley.

Marcus Terentius Varro, the most learned of the Romans, born in Rieti in 116 BC. He is the source, reported by Pliny, of the lake as navel of Italy. Varro wrote on agriculture, on the Latin language, on antiquities, and he knew the Sabina as an owner and as a scholar. Without him the Lacus Cutiliae would be one pool among many in the valley.

Pliny the Elder, who in the Natural History describes the waters of Cutilia as ice-cold and reports their uses. Seneca, who in the Natural Questions cites the floating island of the lake. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the Greek historian who in Rome collected the traditions on Italic origins. And Vitruvius, whom the Superintendency recalls among the authors who speak of these waters. The sources do not say if any of them ever came up here in person.

In the 20th century generations of thermal-cure patients passed through Cotilia, arriving for mud and inhalations in an accredited facility. It is the liveliest memory in the valley, and explains the composed anger with which local people follow the affair. Next to them, the truck drivers and families traveling on the Salaria, who stopped at the stands and filled bottles at the fountains.

And then there is the family that ran the facility for half a century. The mayor of Castel Sant’Angelo, in his reconstruction of February 2026, describes a family management that began with the founder and passed to the children and today to the grandchildren. The Municipality's judgment on this management is harsh and public. Here we limit ourselves to the facts: the property is private, the structure is closed, the game is being played before the Region.

When it's closed and what not to expect

The facility is closed all year until further notice. Don't expect special openings, open house days or visits of the interiors: no source has published any in 2026. If you read about a reopening, look for confirmation on the thermal park's website and on that of the Municipality of Castel Sant’Angelo, and distrust announcements that don't give a precise date and the services actually available.

The Roman remains are closed outside the visits by appointment. There is no ticket office, there are no extensive explanatory panels, there are no restrooms and no information point. The whole story comes through the person who accompanies you, and this is why the arranged visit is worth much more than a look through the fence. In heavy rain the terraces become slippery and the visit may be canceled.

The lake has no published hours, but this does not mean it is an equipped area. There are no lifeguards, no adequate number of benches, no regularly emptied bins and no lighting. At night it is not a place to stop. In winter the valley fog can make the road slow, and with snow the uphill stretches toward the high villages require suitable tires.

On accessibility the picture is poor. The ruins are on terraces with changes in level and no dedicated routes, the lake has irregular natural banks, the facility is closed. Those moving in a wheelchair can see the lake from a few points near the road and little else. An accessibility statement for the archaeological site does not appear to be published: ask the Municipality of Cittaducale for it when you book.

Don't expect information on site either. Along the Salaria the signs for the baths are still those from when the facility was working, and your navigation will take you to the closed gate as if it were open. The directions to the Roman remains are scarce and those to the lake almost absent. Save the points on the map beforehand and keep the numbers of the Municipality and the Superintendency at hand.

Eating in the area

The cooking of the Velino valley is low-mountain food: legumes, homemade pasta, grilled meats, sheep's cheeses, and along the Salaria the porchetta from the stands. The local press tells that the first refreshment point next to the fountains opened in 1971 and that six or seven others were later added. The water has disappeared, the porchetta has stayed, and it has become the real reason to stop.

The rules of Rome apply here too. The first warning sign is the menu with laminated photographs of the dishes, translated into five languages. A place that has to show you the picture of pasta all’amatriciana, half an hour from Amatrice, is talking to passersby who won't come back. Regular customers don't need pictures.

Second sign: the lady rolling out the dough in the window or on the sidewalk. It is scenery meant to stop the passerby, not a guarantee. Well-made pasta is prepared in the kitchen in the morning, away from the exhaust of the state road. Third sign: someone waiting for you at the door to invite you in. A good place in a valley this small doesn't need to get customers in the street.

Fourth sign, places open without a break from morning to evening, with the kitchen always ready: a real kitchen has a pause. Fifth, items with no price on the menu, the fish of the day in a mountain valley, different price lists inside and outside. In rest areas along the big roads the price tends to adapt to the customer. Always ask before ordering.

Romans, and people from Rieti, don't go to these places for a simple reason: they know the alternative. In the villages of the valley you eat in family trattorias open at lunch and in the evening with tight hours, often closed one day a week. Look at who is sitting at the tables at three in the afternoon on a weekday: workers, office employees, local families. That is the right sign.

So you don't go at random, I keep a selection of addresses that we really frequent in Rome and Lazio, with no sponsorships: our list of the places where we eat. In the Velino valley it's best anyway to phone before setting out, because many kitchens close early in the evening and some open only on weekends out of season.

What to combine in the same day

The natural pairing is Cittaducale, which has the regular plan of the Angevin new towns and a square onto which a cathedral and palaces face. Continuing east you reach Antrodoco, squeezed between the gorges of the Velino, with the church of Santa Maria extra moenia and its baptistery. Borgo Velino is in between, on the same road.

To the west is Rieti, with the historic center, the cathedral and the marker of the center of Italy in Piazza San Rufo, to be seen after reading Varro at the lake. Around the Rieti plain are the Franciscan sanctuaries of the Holy Valley: the Sanctuary of Greccio, Fonte Colombo, Poggio Bustone and Santa Maria della Foresta.

Those with time who want mountains climb to Terminillo, the Romans' mountain, or toward Leonessa. Those who prefer lakes have Lake Salto and Lake Turano with Castel di Tora. These are half-day trips, best by car and outside summer weekends.

Those traveling with kids who get bored in front of stones can end the day at the Rieti lakes reserve, with its blinds for watching birds, or go up to Poggio Bustone, a hill village with a view over the plain. These are outdoor alternatives, a short distance away, that also work well on days when the visit to the ruins is canceled because of rain or lack of staff.

Following the Salaria north you retrace the road of the Flavians to Cittareale, the area of Falacrine, and then to Accumoli and Amatrice, towns marked by the earthquake of 2016. From Antrodoco, instead, the road to L’Aquila leaves Lazio. These are itineraries that ask for respect toward those living the reconstruction.

To close the circle in Rome, the theme of the Flavians continues at the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, and that of the baths at the Baths of Caracalla and the Baths of Diocletian, where you understand what a Roman public thermal complex really was. In front of those volumes, the Cotilia basin takes on its real measure of a country residence.

Those instead looking for a hot bath in Lazio will find pages dedicated to the springs of the Tuscia, such as the Bullicame, the Terme dei Papi and the Terme di Stigliano, and in the south the Terme di Suio. Each place has its own conditions and frequent changes of management. Check the status with the operator before leaving, as holds for Cotilia.

Frequently asked questions

Are the Terme di Cotilia open in 2026?

No. At the end of September 2026 the facility is closed and the thermal park's website announces renovation work and an upcoming opening, with no date. According to the mayor of Castel Sant’Angelo, the health services for which the structure is accredited have not been guaranteed for 13 years, and the Municipality has asked the Lazio Region to revoke the mining concession.

Can you still get sulfur water at the fountains on the Salaria?

According to the latest available report, of September 28, 2026, the public fountains along the Salaria no longer dispense sulfur water. The owner had declared in November 2025 its willingness to restore them, and the Municipality has asked to be able to manage the supply directly. Before leaving with jugs it's best to inquire with the Municipality of Castel Sant’Angelo.

Are there free thermal pools at Cotilia?

No public source, municipal or regional, documents free thermal pools at Cotilia with an operator and access rules. The web pages that speak of free baths don't indicate a verifiable place. The advice is not to look for them in ditches or on land in the valley, which are private properties and drainage channels, not natural pools fit for swimming.

Where are the Baths of Vespasian and how do you visit them?

The remains are in the municipality of Cittaducale, in the locality of Caporio Cesoni, on Via delle Terme di Vespasiano, with parking at kilometer 87 plus 900 of the Salaria in the direction of Rome. They are visited only by appointment, by contacting the Superintendency at 06 67233000 or the Municipality of Cittaducale at 0746 601044. Prices and hours are not published.

Is it true that Vespasian died at the baths of Cotilia?

Suetonius writes that Vespasian died on June 23 of 79 in the countryside of Cutilia and Rieti, where he spent every summer, after the very frequent use of cold water had worsened his illness. The text does not speak of baths or name a specific building. The identification of the Cittaducale remains with the imperial villa is tradition, not document.

Can Lake Paterno be visited, and can you swim in it?

The lake is in the territory of Castel Sant’Angelo and has no ticket or published hours. Guides describe a free approach from the road and a walk along the bank. No swimming authorizations or lifeguard service appear to be published, the spring water is cold and the bottom drops quickly: better to look at it from the shore and respect every sign.

Why is Lake Paterno called the navel of Italy?

Pliny the Elder reports that Marcus Terentius Varro, a scholar born in Rieti, considered the lake of Cutilia, with its floating island, the navel of Italy. The Lacus Cutiliae of the ancient authors is identified with Lake Paterno. Rieti claims the same title for the city and commemorates it in Piazza San Rufo, but the ancient source speaks of the lake.

How do you get to Cotilia from Rome without a car?

You take a Cotral bus from Roma Tiburtina to Rieti along the Salaria and from Rieti a run toward Cittaducale or Antrodoco that travels the valley. Stops and times should be checked on the Cotral website the day before, because on holidays the runs are reduced. The train from Rome is not direct and requires a change at Terni.

Who wrote this page

The page comes from the editorial team of Tour Leader Pro, the Roman outfit that designs itineraries, visits and cultural events across Rome and Lazio. The state of the facility, the contacts for visits and the practical information reported here come from the sources cited in the text as of the date given at the opening. At Cotilia the news changes often: recheck before leaving and let us know what you find changed.

Lining up a day in the Velino valley means fitting together visits by appointment that depend on a municipal office, intercity runs that are halved on holidays, state roads with few safe stops and villages where kitchens close early, for yourself or for a group of 40 people. Those facing this kind of puzzle will find on Tour Leader Pro working materials designed for those who guide and for those who organize on their own.

For the wide picture, that is, regional trains and seasonal timetables, rentals, airports, travel between one province and another and destinations in Lazio outside the center of Rome, from the Sabina to the Rieti lakes to the Tyrrhenian coast and the villages of the Apennines, a useful resource for putting together a multi-day itinerary is Italy Planner.