I should have known by attempt three. Yet there I was, on a wet February afternoon in 2019, paying nine euros for a hire towel because mine was at home in Padenghe, then another five for slippers because my own had been left next to the dryer, then watching the towel kiosk's card machine fail in front of me with a queue of four behind. Four trips to Aquaria over the previous months and I had now arrived under-equipped at every single one of them. So this is the list I wish someone had handed me eight years ago — what to put in the bag, what to leave at home, and what the official packing guide quietly oversells.
What to bring
Aquaria provides a locker, a wristband, and a bar of basic shower soap if you ask at reception. Everything else is either rented or sold inside. Rentals add up faster than you'd think — by the third visit your saved-locker-fee has paid off your own rubber-soled slippers twice over.
- Your own swimsuit. Required. They don't sell them, and a borrowed one from a friend is the difference between a relaxing afternoon and a chafed one.
- A towel. Bring a normal-sized bath towel. Robe rental at the inside kiosk is around eight to ten euros and the queue can run to twenty minutes on Saturdays. Your own towel skips the queue entirely.
- Rubber-soled slippers, your size. Mandatory on the pool decks. Hire pairs are kept in three sizes — small, medium, and "Italian large," which is what they hand most foreigners regardless of foot. Mine flap audibly when I wear them, and they're not safe on wet tile.
- A small dry bag. For the wet swimsuit on the way out. Hotel laundry will resent you otherwise.
- Cash. Twenty euros minimum, in fives and tens. Card readers at the towel kiosk go down often enough that this isn't paranoia. Cash also works at the snack bar when the queue at the till is moving slowly.
- A water bottle. Refill points are scattered around the indoor area. Steam rooms dehydrate you faster than you think.
- A small snack. The restaurant is overpriced and the bar offerings are limited; an apple or a flapjack from your hotel breakfast will do more for you at three in the afternoon than a soggy panino.
Most-forgotten item
The slippers. Without exception. I once made it as far as the locker room before realising mine were sitting on the doormat at home. Three other times I've watched friends arrive with elegant leather sandals and discover at the pool entrance that those will not do. Bring rubber soles you don't mind getting wet — supermarket cheap ones work fine.
What to leave behind
The marketing for any high-end Italian thermal centre suggests an aspirational evening crowd in robes drinking aperitivos. That isn't really how it goes at Aquaria, and a few things you might be tempted to bring are pure footprint:
- Jewellery. The lockers are small and the surfaces inside are slippery. I lost a thin gold ring my grandmother gave me into the gap behind a locker base in 2021 and never saw it again. Take watches, rings, earrings off before you leave home.
- Anything you'd describe as "evening wear." Aquaria's brochure pictures suggest you might dine on after your treatment. The truth is most people leave straight from the pool deck, hair wet, in whatever they came in wearing. The restaurant is informal at best.
- Expensive sunglasses. Easily lost on a sun-lounger; impossible to wear in the pools or saunas.
- A laptop. Yes, I know, but I once watched a man at a poolside table try to type out an email on a thirteen-inch MacBook with steam visibly condensing on the keys. Don't be that person.
- Books you care about. Anything you bring poolside will warp from the humidity. Library books are fine. First editions are not.
Bring vs rent: a one-year cost
This is roughly what bringing your own kit saves over the course of a normal year — say, six visits, which is what I average between October and April when prices are at their best.
| Item | Rented (per visit) | Six-visit total | Buy-once cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Towel + robe | €8–10 | €48–60 | €25 (decent towel) or €40 (your own robe) |
| Slippers | €5 | €30 | €8 (supermarket) or €15 (proper) |
| Locker padlock backup | n/a | n/a | €5 |
| Total | — | €78–90 | €38–60 (one-off) |
Two visits in, the kit has paid for itself. From visit three onward you're just saving money — and avoiding the towel-kiosk queue, which is honestly worth more than the cash difference.
Two seasonal extras
For winter and cold-shoulder months (November through March), pack a thin layer for the salt grotto. The grotto's room temperature is several degrees cooler than the pool decks — deliberately so, because it's meant to feel slightly fresh — and twenty minutes barefoot on a reclining chair in just a swimsuit becomes mildly uncomfortable. A long-sleeved cotton tee or a thin sarong does the job.
For everything else — when to actually go, which centre to choose, what the water is doing — see the Aquaria-versus-Catullo guide. If you're curious about the spring itself, the Boiola entry goes into where the water rises. And the practical detail — booking, opening times, the cost of the day pass — sits with the official information at termedisirmione.com, alongside their own (more aspirational) packing list.
