Well that was wonderful and strange. We just got back from a few days of enjoying the thermal waters in Abano Italy. Would you like to see why it was both wonderful and strange?

Luxurious Surroundings and War Zone Like Areas. Side by Side!

We saw a tale of two cities on our recent visit to Abano, Italy .Hive account@lellabird60 and I stayed in a fabulous hotel with 4 thermal water swimming pools that varied in temperature from 28°C up to 38° C. In front of the hotel was a beautiful piazza with a fountain and other water features but then right next door was an abandoned and decaying hotel that showed hints to a distant glorious past.

Let's See The Nice Areas First!

This is the indoor pool from which you can swim into an outside pool.

Here is one of the outdoor thermal pools which was only 28°c so I had it all to myself!

 

A night time view of the front entrance of our hotel.

Here is a view from the balcony of our room. You can see the pedestrian zone and the fountain.

Now Let's Check Out Some of The Abandoned Buildings!

As we walked around the town we realized that this was far from unusual. Our own personal rough estimate showed that about 20% of the hotels, apartments and houses were also abandoned. What happened?

Here's the outdoor pool of one of the abandoned hotels near where we were staying.

This abandoned indoor pool was right beside our hotel! Kind of spooky!

Here Are A Few More Shots of Abandoned Places!

Maybe they're planning on fixing this one up. Who knows?

There were plenty of half and three quarter built places that had been left to decay!

So What Happened?

We tried to ask several locals what had happened and it seems that the mania of being sent to that area as part of a medical treatment prescribed by your doctor and covered by insurance is now over. There used to be many who traveled there from Northern Switzerland and Germany on Doctors orders but that is no longer the case. This led to many hotels, supporting structures and private residences going bankrupt!

Would I Still Recommend Going There? 

In short, yes! We still had a wonderful time and found it relaxing and interesting to visit there. Nowadays the vast majority of guests seem to be from Russia and so much of the signage can be seen in that language!

Here you can see that the menu in the Hotel we stayed in was also in Russian. Cool!

This sign outside of one of the shops was in multiple languages including Russian.

What About You?

• Do you find it strange to see luxurious and abandoned buildings side by side?
• Have you ever seen such a thing?
• Do you know what really happened in Abano?

Thanks for following me on my travels and I look forward to sharing my adventures with you. 

Until next time,  

@kus-knee (The Old Dog)     

  

Let's Succeed Together!