An “authentic” citizen from Acqui Terme is known as a “sgaientò”, meaning “scalded” in local dialect.

According to a legend from medieval times, the newborn babies were taken to the Bollente spring and quickly immersed under the boiling hot water. The toughened survivors, were therefore worthy of becoming a genuine Acquese inhabitant.

This legend may be related to the tradition of washing the newborn straight after birth with the thermal water, obviously after cooling. It may also be another ritual similar to the Christian baptism.