The largest spa district in Europe
At the foot of the Euganean Hills, a few kilometres from Padua, Abano Terme and Montegrotto Terme form one of the largest spa districts in Europe, with over a hundred hotels each equipped with its own thermal pools and treatment centres. Their hot waters have been used since antiquity: the Romans called the area "Aponus", after a god of healing, and built baths whose ruins can still be seen in Montegrotto.
The waters fall as rain on the Lessini mountains and the Pre-Alps, about a hundred kilometres north, and travel underground for decades at great depth, warming up and becoming rich in minerals, before emerging here at temperatures of up to 87 degrees. They are used above all for the famous thermal mud (fango), a mature clay that is applied hot to the body for the treatment of arthritis and rheumatism, recognised by the Italian health service, as well as for baths, inhalations and wellness treatments in thermal pools, many of them outdoors. Montegrotto also has Y-40, a thermal swimming pool 42 metres deep, among the deepest in the world, used by divers and freedivers.
Tip: many hotels offer day passes to their thermal pools; the pedestrian centre of Abano and its park are pleasant for an evening walk.
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