Hotel President Terme

Hotel President Terme has no golf course and no services aimed at golfers. Golf here means the clubs around the Euganean Hills, a few kilometres from Abano, booked directly with each club.

The biggest is Golf della Montecchia at Selvazzano Dentro: opened in 1988, it has a 27-hole Championship Course designed by English architect Tom Macauley and is known for hosting several editions of the Challenge Tour and Alps Tour. Golf Club Padova, at Galzignano Terme, is the oldest course in Padua, founded in 1962: it has three 9-hole par-36 loops, the yellow and blue by John D. Harris, the red by Marco Croze.

At Rovolon sits Golf Club Frassanelle: 18 holes designed by Croze in 1990 inside a park of over 200 hectares on the Papafava family estate, in a nineteenth-century park designed by Giuseppe Jappelli, with a club house in a seventeenth-century farmhouse. All three clubs are independent of the hotel.

The hotel's website gives 1968 as the year of foundation and five stars as its category. The address is Via Montirone 31 and the hotel is part of the VH Group. Shared spaces include a gym reserved for one person at a time, with a personal trainer on request, bicycles for local rides and an evening programme of tastings, candle-lit dinners and live music.

Rooms start with the Classic, a 24 sq m standard with balcony, air conditioning, minibar and safe. Above it come 10 Junior Suites with two bathrooms (shower and bath) and two balconies, and 11 Senior Suites, larger and with a small sitting area. The Panoramic Room and Family Room complete the range. Wi-Fi is free and the staff speak several languages.

The hotel calls its spa the flagship of the property. The two pools are connected: the outdoor one measures 26x10 metres, the indoor one 24x8. The thermal water stays between 32 and 34 degrees, which is why the outdoor pool is used in the cold months too. The Hydro Relax area has bubble beds shaped like seats or vaults, with waterfalls and coloured lights, while Aqua Fit uses the indoor pool.

For treatments there are 2 medical clinics, 14 renovated cabins for thermal therapies and 20 for wellness equipment treatments, including Ayurveda and Shiatsu, plus two suites for mud balneotherapy and couples' rituals. You can walk down from the rooms in a bathrobe. The thermal area is open 7.30am to 7.30pm, the pools 7.30am to 9.30pm. Services the hotel lists as included in every stay: a steam cave with aromatherapy, emotional showers, a relaxation area and the Fit & Fun programme.

The main restaurant pairs Venetian tradition with international dishes, built on seasonal produce, ingredients from the Euganean Hills and a selected wine list. The hotel ties it to the wellness programme: the menu includes dishes for intolerances, allergies and diets prescribed by the hotel's specialist doctor, and diet cooking is presented as a menu of its own, designed to reconcile flavour with health goals.

By the pool, Il Glicine is an informal bistro for guests who want an alternative lunch without leaving the relaxation area, including those following a diet programme.

The outdoor pool, at 32-34 degrees, makes a stay possible in the cold season too. According to the hotel, Padua is 10 minutes away, Arquà Petrarca under half an hour by car, Valsanzibio less than 15 kilometres, while Venice, Vicenza and Verona take about an hour by car.

• A volcanic regional park. According to the hotel's website, the Euganean Hills are of volcanic origin and hold the first regional park in Veneto, established in 1989.
• Padua, 1222. The University of Padua, known as the Bo, was founded in 1222 and keeps its historic anatomical theatre.
• Seventy statues. The garden of Villa Barbarigo at Valsanzibio covers 15 hectares and holds, says the hotel, seventy statues and a box-hedge labyrinth.
• One of Italy's most beautiful villages. Arquà Petrarca is part of the Most Beautiful Villages of Italy circuit, and its parish church dates from around the year 1000.