“I came for the waters,” Humphrey Bogart’s character Rick tells Capt. Louis Renault in the film “Casablanca” in answer to the question of why he’s in the Moroccan city. Renault notes that they’re in the desert. “I was misinformed,” Rick replies. I thought of that quote, one of so many in that 80-year-old classic, while taking the waters at Abano Terme. 

About an hour from Vicenza, the spa town is awash in warm mineral waters from the Euganean Hills funneled into hundreds of hotel spas and baths, many of them old and grand, with a focus on wellness and a path toward gluttony and sloth. Most hotels offer day-spa packages, but I decided to spend a long weekend. I chose Mioni Pezzato, a modern, four-star hotel with six pools and several saunas.