Two days ago we went to Mystras, the spiritual and political capital of Byzantine-Greece (Constantinople was the capitol of the whole empire). The city is in ruins on a very tall, pointy hill overlooking a plain. There is a 13th century Frankish castle on the top (strange to see a bit of French architecture in Greece), then an upper city with a palace and a lower city, each surrounded by walls. There are four monasteries (one now a functioning nunnery), as well as a cathedral, a church, a palace, and a lot of ruins from the buildings of the city. It was raining a fair amount while we were there, but that actually was nice it has been a lot hotter recently -- in the 90's, which is fairly brutal in the direct sun.
[Modern Sparta in the background]
[Alison with a very nice and informative tour guide at a monastery.]
It has been nice getting a better sense of Orthodox architecture, painting, and religious practices. There is something quite direct and sincere in the painting -- piety shines through. In architecture, there is a love of intimate spaces. Even the larger churches seem to be half-filled with small nooks and niches.
Mystras took longer than we expected, so we weren't able to go to Mycenae. That's too bad, since I would love to see what would have been ancient to Plato and Aristotle, but I would rather do fewer things well than to rush through everything.
Yesterday we bummed around Nafplio, a beautiful little 19th century neoclassical town on the water, with a giant Venetian castle looming over it. It is in some ways one of the more Greek places we went. While primarily a tourist town, it caters to Athenians who are looking to get away from Athens. The only other place really like that was Dimitsana -- in the Arcadian mountains. Otherwise, most places (including central Athens) have had mostly tourists: more Germans than anyone else, then French and English, and finally Americans and Australians (Athens was the only place with many Americans).
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