Bagni di Masino

What to expect

Bagni di Masino is a hamlet at the very end of the road up the Val Masino, a granite valley that branches north off the Valtellina between Morbegno and Sondrio. For more than five centuries it was a spa. Today it is a closed one. The baths and the hotel attached to them shut on February 16, 2015, and in October 2026 they were still closed with no reopening date.

What you find is a large old spa building and hotel at the edge of a forest of tall firs, the end of the asphalt, and a lot of quiet. The setting is lovely. There is just no bath.

We kept this listing because people still search for the “Valle dei Bagni di Masino” as a hot spring, and older guides describe it as one. If you want a hot soak, see the end of this page.

Why it closed

Two things happened at once. The company that had run the spa since a full renovation in 2009, Relais Bagni Masino, ended its management contract. Activity had already stopped in early November 2014 after a landslide, with an order to evacuate and clear the building. Its administrator wrote in March 2015 that running the place, especially in winter, would not work without serious investment in the access road and in slope safety.

Italian Wikipedia gives the closure date as February 16, 2015, for landslide danger. In 2017 the then president of Lombardy, Roberto Maroni, came to a public meeting in the valley, and the region said it could find money for a reopening if a concrete investment plan came forward. Valtellina Mobile, writing in April 2026, still describes the baths as closed since 2015 and links that partly to the fragile slope above them. We found no newer project, tender or sale.

The water and its history

The FAI, Italy’s National Trust, says the spring rises at about 100°F38°C from a grotto behind the old spa, which makes it one of the few genuinely warm springs in the Lombard Alps. A local legend has a herder’s cow discovering it by preferring to drink from a warm stream.

The paper trail is long:

• 1462: The podestà of Morbegno wrote to Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, about a bath fed by healthy waters in the Val Masino.
• Early 1500s: Matteo Bandello mentions summer outings to the baths with Milanese and Como gentlemen in his Novelle.
• 1545: The physician Pietro Paolo Paravicini published the first medical work on the baths in Venice, describing a rough inn and wooden huts.
• 1616: Giovanni Guler von Weineck described the water piped from the rock into two spacious tubs, one for men and one for women.
• 1832: A new building replaced the old wooden one; about 3,000 guests came between 1836 and 1845.
• 1847: The carriage road up from Ardenno was finished, and from 1850 the spa had medical staff.
• 1930s: A new hotel with a covered bridge drew visitors from Milan and Como.

The spa was known locally as the “Bagni delle Signore” because it was recommended for women’s health. That is a historical reputation, not a claim we can back.

What you can still do

The Foresta Regionale Bagni di Masino surrounds the old spa and, with the Val di Mello, makes up the Foresta di Lombardia Val Masino, managed by ERSAF. It has very tall firs, old beeches, natural springs and a network of paths and old mule tracks. ERSAF has built a sensory trail here, an almost flat loop with a wooden handrail and information panels in Braille, which works well for families and for visitors with limited sight.

Climbers come to the area for the granite boulders, and guided bouldering sessions are offered locally. The road to the baths, now partly a forest walk, gives an easy stroll in the woods.

Getting there

From the Valtellina valley road (SS 38) near Ardenno, take the provincial road SP 9 della Val Masino up through Cataeggio and San Martino. At San Martino the Val di Mello branches off to the east; keep straight on for Bagni di Masino at the end of the road.

The last stretch, from Bregolana (km 15.7) to Bagni di Masino (km 16.9), is about 1.2 km (0.75 miles). The Provincia di Sondrio closed it to cars and pedestrians by order no. 30 on February 16, 2026, after a yellow avalanche alert for the central Rhaetian Alps, and reopened it in April 2026. Expect similar closures after heavy snow.

When to go

Late spring to autumn is the time for the forest walks, once the snow has gone and the avalanche risk on the last stretch of road has passed. Weekends in July and August bring crowds to the Val di Mello next door, but Bagni di Masino itself stays quieter.

Rules and etiquette

• Keep out of the closed spa buildings and fenced areas. The closure is for landslide and rockfall risk.
• Do not try to reach the spring or dig a pool. There is no public bathing and the source is inside the closed site.
• In the regional forest, stay on paths, take your rubbish home and follow ERSAF signs.

Where to stay nearby

There is no lodging at Bagni di Masino now. San Martino and Cataeggio, lower in the Val Masino, have small hotels, B&Bs and campsites used by climbers and hikers. Morbegno, on the Valtellina floor, has more choice.

Safety notes

• The slope above the old spa is unstable. Do not linger under it after rain or during the thaw.
• Mountain weather changes fast. Carry a layer even in summer.
• In winter and spring check avalanche bulletins and the province’s road notices before driving up.

Where to soak instead

The nearest naturally hot spa water in Lombardy is at Bormio, at the top of the Valtellina: QC Bagni Nuovi and QC Bagni Vecchi both use Bormio’s thermal springs. Further south-east, Terme di Sirmione on Lake Garda also has real thermal water. Most other “terme” in the region, such as QC Milano, are heated-water spas.