A lovely day for walking: sunny and 13 degrees. A long 30 km walk, but along small lanes through interesting fields, in a landscape that brought to mind the La Mancha of Don Quixote. Instead of tilting at windmills, he would have had to exercise his imagination on stone trullis here though.
This trulli has its own outside fireplace. Maybe it was lived in at one time?
And maybe I’ve just seen too many, but one or two old olive trees seemed to be telling me stories. Under this one obviously a famous knight in armour is wont to stand guard…
I had to take a photo of this - it was so extraordinary. A vegetable garden OUTSIDE walls!!! The farm labelled itself as organic. I wondered if the owners were maybe Canadian expats?
Starting out today everything was quieter than usual. I soon found out that it is a holiday to celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. An internet search informed totally ignorant me that this day celebrates the fact that Mary herself was conceived without carnal sin, and therefore was released from the stain of sin throughout her life. This seems to have been quite a subject of debate over the centuries-was she also released from the stain of original sin (that is, Adam and Eve?) And if so, then why does the Church also celebrate her Redemption? All of this is quite beyond my understanding.
The highlight of the walk was the small village of Acaya. In the fifteenth century the village was fortified with walls, and in the sixteenth century the old castle’s fortifications were modernized. At some point, the village was designed in the most rigorous fashion: six streets parallel in one direction and six streets parallel in the other direction, all perfectly uniform. A French example of such planning that I know about, Richelieu, was designed much later, in the seventeenth century. I am curious to try and find out more about Acaya.
Sixteenth century gate into Acaya
Streets of Acaya
And Acaya’s castle
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