The formulation of the planning proposal for a hot springs museum started from the wish to design an ‘immersion’ visit with the object of interesting visitors not only in the chosen museum theme, but also in the importance of archaeology as a critical-interpretive discipline, fundamental for reconstructing buildings and social behaviours. The sensorial pathway unfolds on the first floor of the nineteenth-century barchessa at Villa Draghi, describing the development of the hot springs through three thematic areas: hot springs in antiquity, hot springs and Roman archaeology in Montegrotto Terme and the district from the Middle Ages to the present. The experience is, in the first case, almost entirely sensorial: sounds, smells and colours allow one to become immersed in the natural phenomenon related to hot springs.
The next staging introduces visitors to the Euganean Hills district, to admire the relics from the Roman period found in the area. Here the visit is mainly physical, tactile: one can touch the objects and interact with the exhibition, virtually exploring the district in search of relics.
The third section is a journey from the Middle Ages to modern times. Visitors complete and further their knowledge of the hot springs phenomenon, initiating a personal study with the assistance of multimedia technology in a space that may be considered a genuine laboratory.
The visit ends outside, in the area in front of the museum entrance, with the staging of a ‘simulated archaeological dig’, where visitors can personally experience finding, recovering, studying and interpreting the relics, all aimed at greater personal engagement.