Its Legend has it that one day Saturn flew into a temper because men were always fighting against each other. He took a flash of lightning and threw it down onto the Earth, causing sulfurous and warm water to gush out from the crater of a volcano, water which wrapped and calmed everything. That comforting womb eventually gave birth to wiser and happier men. The setting of the legend is acknowledged to be the heart of the Tuscan Maremma: here, this water is still gushing out at a rate of 800 liters per second and at a temperature of 37° C.

The history of Terme di Saturnia dates back to the Etruscan era.
A local symbol is a figure of a woman which adorns the fountain in the central square of the village, representing the Etruscan goddess Aurinia. Aurinia was renamed Saturnia by the Romans in the 2nd century B.C. Signs of its past, are evident in some parts of the IV / III century B.C. citywalls, and the Roman Gate. In the nearby of the church it is still visible an ancient thermal square bath built by the Romans.

During the Middle Age, the Maremman region was repeatedly assaulted by the cities of Orvieto and Siena. Even if the local feudists had built defensive fortress, the Maremma was conquered. Nobody, in the following centuries, continued the massive drainage works started by Etruscans and Romans,till 1828 with the Duke Leopoldo II.

The Maremman region was repopulated and its inhabitants were recognize appropriate health cures. Today, turists spend their holidays in the tuscan Maremma, where to find evocative Etruscan necropolies, elegant Roman villas, mysterious medieval fortress.