The abandonment of the baths was probably not a huge loss for the people of medieval Aitolia, since the Byzantines seem to have been rather cool to the idea of entering a basin full of water, whether it was warm or cold. The Byzantine writer Michael Choniates mocked a provincial bath as little more than a cabin whose door failed to close properly and the heat was provided by a poorly-built fireplace. The users suffered from the cold drafts and from the suffocating smoke emitted by the fireplace. Doctors advised their patience to wash twice per week but monks were only required to wash twice per month or three times per year. One monk was known to take a bath only on Easter Sunday.