Tag: europe

Five days a week, beginning in the wee hours, Askit is on the job, filling buckets with deep brown, slimy, gooey mud. Therapeutic mud.

The husky, jovial native of Albania then pulls a cart with six heavy buckets of the yucky substance to the treatment area at the Hotel Residence, a spa hotel in Abano Terme, Italy.  He has been doing this for 30 years, he tells me with a hearty grin, then dumps a pail of mud onto a therapy bed.

Vanni, his Italian colleague, takes over, spreading the mud into one or more puddles on a bed in a small therapy room.  The room also has a shower for hosing off the mud and a deep tub for après-mud soaking in warm thermal water. 

Vanni motions me into the room.  I shed the hotel robe.  Mud treatments are not for the prudish.  This is naked body treatment, however miniscule thong “undies “of a gossamer-like paper are available.  

Vanni is a joy, always smiling.  I stop trying to cover my sagging boobs with my arm and follow his instructions to  lie on the bed, back positioned on the big puddle. He lathers me with mud, covers me in plastic, puts a blanket on top and disappears. The mud is hot initially, but soon deliciously warm. I stay that way for 20 minutes.  Vanni returns midway to wipe my face with a cool, moist cloth.

He started working at the hotel in 1979, he says, and now calls himself “fango meister,” German for mud master.  Many Germans previously patronized this spa hotel.  Vanni has mastered the language in addition to the mud.

I am a water rat.  The mud is pleasant, but I adored the soak in the hot, bubbling thermal water.   According to the Abano web site (abano.it), the water makes a long, underground journey from the pre-Alps.  Rain enriches it with mineral salts.  It is transformed and “classified as salted-bromide iodic hypothermal water.” 

The mineral rich water is the secret ingredient of the mud. Abano is at the feet of the Euganean Hills, a region of prehistoric volcanoes in northeastern Italy. Clay is extracted from lakes in the area, filtered and purified, then left to “ripen” for at least two months in special tanks with the hot thermal water.  Not just hot, but scalding water which emerges from the ground at 75-90 °C (167-194°F). For pool use, it travels through a piping system and is cooled to 30-35 °C (86-95°F). 

The final mud product is natural therapy with a healing, anti-inflammatory and analgesic action.  It is said to stimulate cartilage restoration, enhance the immune system, as well as restore vitality and a mineral balance of the body.

The tub soak is a delight, but even better are the thermal pools, large indoor-outdoor pools with warm thermal water and powerful water jets. They are not meant for swimming, just relaxing and enjoying the soothing water.  I could have spent hours at the pool, but learned from experience that was not a good idea.  The recommendation is for 30-40 minutes maximum per session.  Of course, I disobeyed the first time, and then was completely wiped out. 

Abano has been a wellness destination since ancient times.  According to legend, the first settlement in the territory was founded by Hercules who is said to have restored his strength and health here after his challenging feats.

Romans were fans of water treatments and appreciated the healing properties of hot springs and mud from the valley.  More than 2,000 years ago, they built villas and settlements whose ruins are still prevalent in the area.

This was my third visit to Abano. The first was in the summer (not recommended). See my previous blog, “Taking the waters – and the mud” for more details.

This past Christmas as well as Christmas 2023, I joined friend Angi for a 10-day visit to Abano.  Angi is a dedicated fan of the mud.  For years she lived in Rome and spent two weeks every year in Ischia, a volcanic island off the coast of Naples known for thermal springs and mud.  She had serious back pain following an auto accident which resulted in five fractured vertebrae.  The treatments “took away the pain and inflammation,” she says.

Friend Vera has been to Abano six times for “wellness, cooling out, relaxing… I enjoy it.  I enjoy the treatments,” she says.

I can’t say Abano made any difference with my numerous body infirmities following my disastrous fall and seven surgeries.   But it was sublime, a definite morale booster, a rewarding experience. For me, it did “restore vitality.”   I just may return next Christmas.

In addition to mud and water, I treated myself to massages and facials.  I spent an afternoon exploring nearby Verona.  I joined the excursion to Villa Selvatico, one of many villas, castles and abbeys in the surroundings.  I attended a church concert. And, I found bargains at the town’s weekly market. 

Food was another highlight – very good, varied, healthy.  Angi and I shared a table in the welcoming dining room. Fatima, an “angel” from Brazil, was our waitress. She brought us real cappuccino in the morning so we could skip the watery machine variety. She gave us advice on menu selections. Like most of the hotel staff, she was cheerful, helpful and fun to chat with.

The town Abano Terme has a population of 20,000, but claims 250,000 visitors annually.  There are some 37 spa hotels of all categories offering pools and mud treatments, as well as other hotels and different accommodation possibilities.

My package included nine nights single room, three meals per day excluding drinks, unlimited pool and sauna use, plus bus transportation: 1,400 euros (about $1,500 at current exchange rate).  A doctor visit is required before beginning the program, 70 euros ($72). The doctor determines, recommends which treatments are best for each visitor.  I paid 35 euros ($36) for each mud wrap and tub soak; 70 euros ($72) for a heavenly detox facial; 75 euros ($77.50) for a 50-minute-deep tissue massage.   The latter were so exquisite, I had to have more — an anti-stress facial and another deep tissue massage.

Throughout the year, GB hotels, a group of five Abano spa hotels, organizes bus transportation from several  cities in southern France where I to Abano.

More information on Abano: www.abano.it.  More info on the four-star Hotel Residence and other Abano hotels at www.gbhotelsabano.it

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