In the spring of 1849, workmen quarrying lime on Domenico Giusti’s land at Monsummano, in the Valdinievole between Pistoia and Montecatini, shifted a large boulder and opened a gap in the rock. Stones dropped through it fell a long way and landed in water. The first people to go in with torches found a hot cavern, with small underground lakes among the stalactites. Within four years it was a steam bath, within twenty five a hotel, and today Grotta Giusti Thermal Spa Resort holds weddings of up to 120 guests in its park, with the cave still running more than 200 metres beneath the house.
A quarry, a spa and a poet’s family
Domenico Giusti knew what a warm cave could be worth. He had run the Regie Terme di Montecatini, a short drive away, since 1818, and the size and heat of the cavern set him thinking about cures. In 1853 he put up a small building with an entrance hall and four warm rooms where bathers rested after the steam. He asked the physician Antonio Targioni Tozzetti to analyse the water and the vapour, and Tozzetti’s report, published in 1854, was read by doctors across the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.
His son was Giuseppe Giusti, born at Monsummano in 1809 and remembered as a satirical poet of the Risorgimento, whose verse mocked Austrian rule. He saw little of the spa: he died in Florence in May 1850. His sister, Ildegarde Nencini-Giusti, inherited the family estate in 1861. From the 1860s the spa building was enlarged with the arched loggia and terrace that still front it, and in 1873 Ildegarde built the hotel beside it. Garibaldi stayed in 1867 and praised the cave’s curative properties in his letters; Lajos Kossuth followed in 1871. Giuseppe Verdi called the cave the eighth wonder of the world, and in 1910 it gave 16,000 steam baths.
The resort has been a thermal hotel for more than 150 years. It now belongs to Italian Hospitality Collection and the Autograph Collection by Marriott, and its rooms and public spaces were renewed by the design studio Richmond International, with colours and materials drawn from the park and from the pale limestone of the cave.
Paradiso, Purgatorio and Inferno
The cave is divided into three zones, named by tradition after the realms of Dante: Paradiso nearest the entrance, then Purgatorio, then Inferno, each warmer than the last, from 28 to 34°C. Beneath vaults of rock hung with stalactites, guests sit in natural steam with the humidity close to saturation. At the bottom lies the Limbo, a clear thermal lake that holds 36°C in winter and in summer. The spa offers floating in the warm spring water and diving in the cave’s submerged passages.
The same water feeds the pools above ground. It rises warm from the hydrothermal aquifer of Montalbano and is used as it emerges, with no chemical or physical treatment. In September 2026 the cave won the thermal grotto spa title of the World Spa Awards once again.
A ceremony under the park’s old trees
Weddings at Grotta Giusti take up to 120 guests for the ceremony and the dinner. Couples marry in the gardens and park around the villa, beneath its old trees, or indoors in the villa’s ceremony rooms. The resort also offers a newer setting for the ceremony on the great outdoor thermal pool: the Bioaquam Pavilion, a covered space of 310 square metres whose walls are sliding panels of tempered glass.
The pool beside it covers 750 square metres, with underwater hydromassage set into four features known as the chiocciole, or snails. Its terrace is used for poolside celebrations and evening parties, and the park terrace for dinner outside on summer evenings.
Dinner in Il Cavaliere and the poet’s restaurant
The wedding banquet is served in Il Cavaliere, the resort’s events hall, with menus from the resort’s own chefs built on Tuscan and Mediterranean cooking, fine wines and produce from the Valdinievole hills. The resort also arranges hair and make up, flowers and staging, photography, music and the hire of vintage cars, so much of the styling of the day can be handled by one team.
Outside the wedding itself, the resort’s restaurant, Il Poeta, takes its name from Giuseppe Giusti and follows the seasons. In the Affresco Lounge Bar, books and poems about the region sit among the tables, and the cocktails are made by the bartender with a herbalist, using aromatic plants from the resort’s herb garden.
Sixty four rooms in the Giusti villa
The villa has 64 rooms and suites, so much of the wedding party can sleep where it celebrates. They range from Classic and Deluxe Park View rooms to Junior Suites of about 40 square metres with a sitting area, and the Giusti Suite of 56 square metres, which has a four poster bed and a balcony over the park. The rooms were completely renovated: tree and plant patterns run across the walls, and the marble of the bathrooms was chosen to recall the limestone that the water has shaped in the cave.
Grotta Giusti is not offered for exclusive use. The rooms, the pools and the cave stay open to other resort guests during a wedding, which matters to couples who imagine a weekend with the whole property to themselves. For guests who come for the spa as much as the party, the arrangement has an advantage: the cave and the thermal pools are open to everyone staying at the resort, so the morning after the wedding can begin in the steam of Paradiso.
Montecatini, Monsummano Alto and the Valdinievole
The resort sits in the Valdinievole hills, and beyond the cave it offers olive oil tastings in the shade of olive trees and birdwatching on the Padule di Fucecchio marshes. Montecatini Terme, where Domenico Giusti ran the baths, is about ten minutes away and has been part of the Great Spa Towns of Europe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, since 2021. On the hill above Monsummano stands Monsummano Alto, a castle first mentioned in the 11th century, where gates, long stretches of wall and a single tower survive, and the town below has a museum dedicated to the poet.
Arrival is straightforward for international guests. Florence airport is about 45 minutes by car and Pisa airport about 50. By road the resort is reached from the A11 Firenze to Mare motorway at the Montecatini Terme exit, four kilometres from Monsummano Terme, and the Montecatini and Monsummano Terme railway station is also four kilometres away. Pistoia is about 15 minutes’ drive, and Lucca is within an hour.
For other Tuscan houses, read our Edits on Villa Il Cerretino, Villa Michaela and Castello di Casole, or browse weddings in Tuscany and the Tuscany Wedding Atlas.
A wedding that shares the steam
The question to settle before anything else is whether a resort that stays open to other guests suits the wedding you have in mind. In exchange, the party gets a ceremony in the park or by the thermal pool, dinner in Il Cavaliere and 64 rooms above a cave that has drawn bathers since 1853, with pricing prepared for each wedding on request. If that balance works, read the Grotta Giusti Thermal Spa Resort profile and check your date.
