The museum is also known as the Terme Museum after the Terme (thermal baths) of Diocletian.
The "terme" in Porretta Terme means bath, and comes from the local sulfur springs.
For those with more money and looking for a more classical experience — both musically and architecturally — there is open-air opera and ballet amid the Roman ruins of the Terme Di Caracalla, the Caracalla Baths.
A six-night break, including full-board accommodation, two treatments and use of the thermal baths costs £295, staying in the four-star Dobrava 2000 hotel (part of the Terme Zrece complex).
The treatments are performed using the Terme's proprietary line of products, which are sold throughout Europe and the U.S. in high-end stores including Saks Fifth Avenue.
One of the best is the Terme Zrece (00 386 3757 6156; www.terme-zrece.si), which has eight indoor and outdoor pools, a Sawadee therapy centre with masseuses from Thailand and a raft of other treatments.
In Italy, the pretty Tyrolean town of Merano is home to the Terme Merano thermal baths, or there's Bagni di Bormio, close to the Swiss border.
Just outside the ancient city of Viterbo in northern Lazio are the Terme del Bullicame, mentioned by Dante in The Divine Comedy.
In the period spent in Rome he visited Villa Adriana, the Terme di Caracalla and the Pantheon, and was fascinated by the mysterious light of its ruinsf.
The Terme & Wellness Palace in Portoroz (www.lifeclass-portoroz.com) is a short transfer from Ljubljana airport and offers a wide range of facilities and treatments.
Among the show's highlights is the Terme Boxer, a rare and pristinely preserved large bronze excavated in 1885 on Quirinal Hill in Rome.
