Gambassi Terme is located about 35 km southwest of Florence, stretching stretches as far as the borders of the province of Siena. The main city is picturesquely placed approximately 350 metres above sea-level.
After many centuries of agricultural traditions and craftsmanship, Gambassi is now tending towards an image of natural tourism and the thermal springs (Pillo spring “Acqua Salsa” with its healthy contents, has been used to establish a modern spa establishment): for this reason, in 1977 the city to change its name to Gambassi Terme (at first being just Gambassi).
The city was already known in medieval times for its glass production (still manufactured here), and for being the birthplace of Domenico Livi, the artisan who made some of the stained-glass windows of Florence cathedral in the 1450s
Gambassi Terme has an attractive public garden outside the Palazzo Civico, which houses a small collection of Etruscan and Roman finds excavated in the area.
The church of San Michele (Saint Michael) at Pontorme, the town where Iacopo Carrucci, known as Il Pontormo, was born in 1494, houses important paintings and sculptures, while the church of Santa Maria a Ripa has a porch with 17th century frescoes. A few kilometres further south, at Monterappoli, visitors can see beautiful paintings in the Church of San Lorenzo and, close to this church, the old Romanesque parish church named Pieve di San Giovanni.