Al, Anita, & I beside the Erechtheion, a temple to Athena and Poseidon on the Acropolis
After a couple weeks island hopping in the Cyclades Islands we took a brief, two-day stop in Athens. Mark & I have been to Athens a couple times, including just two years ago, but we were eager to show Anita in particular the Acropolis and other great Greek sites. So off we went.
We were leaving on Friday, when you an see the forecast high was 111 degrees. Definitely eager to get out before that but needless to say the heat on Wednesday & Thursday was oppressive.
Still, even if you’ve seen it before the Acropolis is just a remarkable place. As a common noun, an acropolis is just a citadel built on high ground, typically with steep sides, particularly for defense. As a proper noun the Acropolis is the site of the Parthenon, the ancient temple to the goddess Athena built by the great leader Pericles in the mid-5th century BC during the city’s golden age. It’s faced a lot of challenges in the 2,500 years since then – ravaged by time, blown up by the Venetians in the 17th century when they hit it with artillery fire while the ruling Ottomans used it to store gunpowder, vandalized by Britain’s Lord Elgin in the 19th century when he convinced the Ottoman Sultan to let him remove the best remaining statues – but it remains one of the world’s great sites. So yeah, it was hot, but I still loved it.
Near the Acropolis is the Acropolis Museum, a modern – and air conditioned – building with great displays of Greece’s ancient greatness. Again, we were here two years ago but this time was different for me. I had, you see, recently finished a Anthony Everett’s The Rise of Athens: The Story of the World’s Greatest Civilization. Suddenly stuff I’d seen last time but didn’t really understand leapt to life, now seen in a context I just hadn’t understood before. Last time I saw rocks and broken statues; this time I saw a story. Who says an old dog can’t learn something new?
Four of the original Caryatids, female statues taking the place of columns, supporting part of the Erechtheion
That was it with Greece, then. The plan had been that after saying goodbye to Al & Anita, Mark and I would fly to Rome and then catch a train to Lucca (in Tuscany) where Mark would study Italian for a couple weeks. After making those plans, though, I decided to take advantage of Mark’s stationary plans to go back to Minnesota to see my family. Given the flight schedule I would have to spend one night in Rome so Mark decided to spend the night there with me and enjoy the briefest of Roman holidays before he headed north.
It was definitely brief – we arrived in the afternoon and my flight out was at 6:30 AM the next morning – but we made the most of it. Needless to say, there is something cool about leaving the center of one great center of Western history to go to an even greater historic center. We stayed at a very cute hotel just off the Campo de’ Fiori, one of our favorite Roman squares and a short walk from Piazza Navona, one of Rome’s great squares. So there was good food, a big church or two, and a spin through the ancient Pantheon. Not bad for less than 20 hours in Rome.
Our three favorite Italian dishes are saltimbocca ala Romana, vitello tonnato, and eggplant parmesan (clockwise here from upper right). So when we saw all three items on the menu at a restaurant just steps from our hotel, it was a no-brainer.
For me, then, it was a 4:00 AM alarm to catch a 4:30 taxi to the airport. Except that for whatever reason my alarm didn’t go off and I didn’t wake up until 4:18, still needing to shower and pack. It felt a little rushed but by 4:32 – yes, I was late – I was in the taxi, off to Minnesota. Mark got to sleep in before taking a high-speed train north to Florence and then the local to Lucca. Those stories are next.
Mark in front of the Parthenon
Al & Anita up on the Acropolis
Mark and the Temple of Olympian Zeus. The temple was started in the 6th century BC, and Athens’ great builder Pericles tried to finish it in the 5th century BC. It was of such a massive scale, though, that even in the city’s Golden Age they couldn’t complete it. In fact, it sat unfinished until the second century AD when the Roman Emperor Hadrian – a noted Hellenophile – finally finished it. And to be honest, this picture doesn’t exactly belong here. I took it two weeks earlier when we passed through Athens en route to the islands. I forgot to include it in a blog post back then, so I figured this is close enough.
We only had a few hours in Rome but that was still enough to walk through a few grand churches
The view from our great little hotel near Campo de’ Fiori
And Rome’s Pantheon, today a church but originally a temple to all gods. This was also built by Hadrian early in the second century AD. It has been in continuous use since then which I assume must make it the oldest building in the world still in use.
