The AbanoRitz Hotel had to suddenly suspend its activities due to the Ministry Decree of the 8th of March. But we didn’t like not to have a proper goodbye. So we thought about telling a little bit about ourselves: who with old photos exhumed from few childhood albums, who writing about their experience and who giving some suggestions about wellness or cooking.
We found this kind of digital “HomeDelivery”: a way to stay close among us and to stay close to you by sharing a piece of us with our colleagues and our guests, of whom we are missing taking care of. It could be seen as a “team building”, something very hip nowadays, but quite hard to organize when think about the fact that the AbanoRitz family counts around seventy people.
Simona is mud attendant (fanghina) at the AbanoRitz, the first one to be under the spotlights of our Mondays “Guess who?”(follow us on our Facebook page), where we had to recognize her in a childhood photo…but with those eyes, how could you get wrong? She also decided to tell us about how she arrived at the AbanoRitz Hotel:
FANGHINA BY CHANCE
To the question: “what would you like to be when you grouw up?” I’ve always answered: “Veterinary!” I got my degree in zootechnics, I worked for a little bit with my beloved animals, and then I moved from Modena to Veneto.
One day, I read on the newspaper Il Mattino di Padova: “classes for mud-masso-therapy”… Mmmhhhh…. I thought, why not?
To be honest, I didn’t really know how the mud therapy worked, but it was 1998 when I found myself thrown into this world. I’m a mud attendant since 22 years, 19 of which at the AbanoRitz.
I’m happy with my job because it gives me a lot of satisfaction to give wellness and to naturally cure certain pathologies. And in this standby moment I realize it even more.
P.S.: Often I take advantage of the thermal benefits as well. The swimming pools are open to the public everyday from 7:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.; and when my friends “papaquane” are coming from Modena, they only want to relax at the AbanoRitz Hotel!!!
And for those who are asking themselves, “papaquane” is a dialect term, a kind of “absent-minded”, but actually really hard to translate (in Italian as well). Simona explained to us that they are a group of 15 girlfriends, all from the year 1971 and they all met back in the school time (some during elementary, some during middle school and some during high school). They even have a t-shirt uniform and they support each other and stand by each other at all times. The friendships with a big capital “F”, the real and rare ones.
Simona’s riddle: “The mystery ingredient”
Solution: They are not spaghetti, but actually a particular cyanobacterial (Phormidium sp.ETS-50).
The benefits of the thermal mud, which is composed by a solid part (mud) and a liquid part (thermal water), are explained not only by the warmth but above all by the release of substances. Those substances have elevated anti-inflammatory properties that are produced by the mud itself. This micro-organisms (silt) are: bacteria (among which the cyanobacterial, which are also known as blue-green algae), microalgae ( among which the diatoms) and protozoa.
After a slow maturation process, the mud turns into a medication with healthy and long-lasting effects. It is more powerful than Aspirin, less invasive than Advil and without any side effect.
Cortisone? What’s that ?!?
