“Knowing how to grow old is the masterpiece of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living.”
Henri Amiel
Ageism, from the English “age”, means the prejudice and discrimination of a person based on his or her age. The term was coined in 1969 by the gerontologist Robert Butler to denote this stereotype, which is particularly damaging to older people.
In contemporary society, there is a myth of youth. Butler notes that “the elderly condition is almost denied, often reduced to deteriorating and misleading images”.
The elderly, if they are not pushed into a youthful caricature of themselves, are sometimes considered slow and inefficient, in a state of slow and unacceptable decline, and in any case an economic and social burden. Absurd, considering that historically they have been the custodians of memory and experience, of history and knowledge. Who among us has not appreciated the privilege of the stories of grandparents, uncles and great-aunts? Tales of life, of experience that creates history and roots. My elders, or those I considered elderly when I was younger, evoked authority and wisdom, aroused recognition and emulation.
The AbanoRitz respects this image because, aware that there is no future without the past, it preserves the value of this extraordinary third and fourth age made up of stories that become almost legend and people myths, which are passed down from family to family, from generation to generation. These are stories that you don’t read in books, but they enchant.
Especially during these last two years, we realized how much the Silver Generation people suffered from the social distancing and isolation imposed by the historical period we are still going through.
Many of our loyal Guests contacted us during the first quarantine, partly to reassure us of their health and partly to find out how we were doing here, in this large holiday hotel and spa residence. We realized how empty was a closed hotel and how much loneliness this pandemic was generating, and so the Senior Living Resort project was born: an exclusive proposal for a long stay in a five-star hotel, but with the hospitality and warmth of a home with a thermal spa and a medical center recognized by the National Italian Health System.
