Abano Terme, what to do and see in the Euganean Hills

Abano Terme, what to do and what to see during a relaxing holiday in the largest spa in Europe, between thermal sludge and discovery of Euganean Hills.

Abano Terme is the oldest and most important spa in Europe. The ideal place to detach the plug, even for a few days, and indulge in pampering and relaxation, then return home regenerated, in body and spirit.

Abano Terme hotel

Recently I was guest ofAbano Ritz, one of Abano Terme hotel of great tradition, immersed in a vast park of secular trees that since arrival transmits a sense of peace and wellness.

Passionately managed by the sisters Poletto, heirs of a historic family of hoteliers, theAbano Ritz has a super equipped spa with thermal baths, spa and two thermal pools, internal and external, where the beneficial salty-bromo-iodic water flows Terme Euganee.

During my stay atAbano Ritz I stayed in room 514, the Swan, with a shabby chic style, littered with original furniture, mirrors and objects of bric à brac, curated as a work of art by the artist Walter Davanzo. Overlooking with a terrace on Abano Terme and much more spacious than the normal hotel rooms, it is one of the "creative" rooms on the fifth floor, different from the other and each with its own character.

I then found the same vintage and creative atmosphere in the restaurant Il Brutto Anatroccolo, reign of Terry Poletto, who took us gently for the throat with dishes not only tasty, but that tell stories of land and sea.

Really exquisite swordfish ravioli with fennel, lemon peel and licorice powder;

to say little sumptuous Catalana, a triumph of steam crustaceans on a bed of salad, potatoes, capers and onion of Tropea.

More traditional, both for setting and for menu, is White Gloves, the main restaurant ofAbano Ritz, elegant environment and dishes inspired by the territory and seasons. In summer, the lunch is in the name of the "easytudine", with informal barbecues in the park with fish, meat and grilled vegetables, fresh salads and fruit salads to be enjoyed in the shade of secular trees.

Fangotherapy

The mud therapy and its beneficial effects on the body, especially on joint disorders and pathologies, is the main reason why it comes to Abano Terme.

"Although it is now reductive to talk about thermal as purely therapeutic places, – says Ida Poletto, general manager of Abano Ritz, – the thermal euganean are the first area for Preventive Health in Europe and those of AbanoRitz are fourth generation spas that propose the spa wellness global as prevention based on specific biomedical protocols. " The message is clear: no more places attended exclusively by cured pensioners, the term 4.0 are centers of wellness and prevention.

At the center of everything there are them, thermal sludge by the powerful therapeutic properties that are the black gold of Euganean Hills. The "Fngo DOC" is a amalgam consisting of clay collected in a pond of Euganean Hills and matured for months in thermal water that flows at about 87 degrees in thermal euganean (here and only here!) after an underground course of thousands of years.

During this process, active ingredients are developed from anti-inflammatory, detoxifying and decongesting properties and for this reason the mud therapy It is a real cassock not only for chronic pathologies, but also for all those disorders related to sedentity and poor motor activity, such as backache and cervical pain, so much to cite the most frequent, of which good or bad we suffer a little 'all. Moreover, it prevents biological ageing, remineralizing skin and tissues.

Let us not forget that thermal sludge have a de-toxifying effect; they stimulate the system of renewal of the organism and help to fight the skin's extremities.

I mean, they're real allies for pre-holiday remise-en-forms, which is why the time when mud therapy is particularly effective is spring, when our organism wakes up and we feel the need to recover physical form in a gentle and natural way.

And it was really a bio-detoxinating mud treatment, what I tried during my stay atAbano Ritz, followed by a relaxing spa massage, which decontrando the muscles, transmitted me a feeling of total wellness. But not only. The mud also acts as a scrub, leaving the skin extraordinarily smooth and soft.

An effect that lasts several days, especially if – as they suggested – the treatment is also combined with a lymphatic massage, which stimulates the lymphatic circulation by favouring the drainage of liquids: an excellent remedy against the inestetisms of cellulite.

Abano Terme what to see in the Euganean Hills

Between treatment and treatment, I did not miss the opportunity to explore the territory of Euganean Hills, the first regional park in Veneto, which hides the green of oak forests and chestnut trees a great historical and artistic heritage. The gentle hills of volcanic origin are dotted with ancient villages, Venetian villas, castles, abbeys, and crossed by a dense network of paths and cycle paths, including the Cycle Ring of the Euganean Hills.

Praglia Abbey

Walking along country roads with Carmen, young owner of the tour operator Traveling Curiosi that organizes bike excursions in the surroundings (but also on foot and by boat), we reached the Abbey of Praglia, a place of great suggestion and spirituality.

The original Benedictine monastery founded in the 12th century remains only the bell tower, as Father Vladimiro explained, our guide, but the complex still retains the medieval system articulated in four cloisters.

Heart of monastic life, marked by the Benedictine rule ofnow et labora, is the church of the Assumption of the fifteenth century. But the real wonder is the ancient library, one of the most vital environments of the monastery, which under a magnificent wooden ceiling of the 16th century houses collections of ancient volumes of invaluable value.

Monumental Garden of Valsanzibio

Another fascinating walk in the history of Euganean Hills was also the visit of the 16th-century Monumental Garden of Valsanzibio. In fact, a true allegorical path of the "way of perfection" that brings man from Herror to Truth, from ignorance to Revelation.

What? Crossing the four areas where the park is divided by the noble family Venice of Barbarigo in the 17th and since then kept intact and original until today.

Hundreds of secular trees, statues, fountains, ponds and water games create a harmonious and intriguing natural environment, so that it has also been rewarded as "Best Garden in Italy". A place where it's nice to miss.

And in fact, there was little I really missed in the insidious monumental maze of bosses: 1500 meters of paths, crossroads, traps and blind alleys between high green walls, designed to symbolize the arduous path of human perfectionability. In which to get lost and, in the end, together with the right path, find yourself.