Alithea Travel

Held up by 336 marble columns, this majestic underground chamber was designed to supply water to Roman and later Ottoman palaces. Can you imagine a modern waterworks designed with such beauty?

The mainly Ionic and Corinthian order columns were recycled from other structures and used as supports in the cistern. With a capacity for 2,800,000 cu ft of water, its beauty and grandeur are matched only by its functionality.

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There are many things to see in Paris. In the Louvre alone, evidently, if you looked at each object for just one minute and spend every open hour and day in the museum, it would take over year to see it all.

But the point of travel is never to see it all. It is just to see those things that may have captured our hearts and imaginations as children, those places and monuments that will wake us to a door, hidden within us, the key to which is the thing we travel to behold.

Nike, or ‘Winged Victory’ as she is called, is one such piece. She stands at the top of the stairs at the end of a long gallery of sculpture and as one walks towards her, she seems ready to take flight. The surrounding noise seems to quiet, the folds of her dress are pressed against her body by the wind, accentuating her femininity and divinity.

She is standing at the prow of a stone ship, one can almost feel the cresting waves pushing her higher, with wings outstretched. She is remarkable not only as a work of sculpture but as the image of an idea.

In a society such as our own, where the nobility of ideas, the dignity of the divine and human, can sometimes be overlooked, the Winged Victory reminds us what it is to let ideas take flight.

As these first two photos suggest, walking through the old town of Naxos is like walking through a door into the past. On one side of the door is a beautiful, white-washed town overlooking the Aegean sea, with fabulous restaurants, and on the other side are the stories of pirates, raiders, Venetians, and ancient Greek gods and heroes.

There are lifetimes of stories between these walls. It was here, according to myth, that Theseus left Ariadne after defeating the minotaur. According to some, the god Dionysius was born here. From the gate of Apollo to the medieval fortress, it is a place where the past is interwoven with daily life.

The history of Naxos pre-dates that of Athens. It’s impossible to walk along the shore of Grotta beach without walking over countless ceramics pieces made smooth by centuries of pounding surf.

For a thousand years Delos was the most sacred island in Greece. It is the legendary birthplace of Apollo, the god of the sun, knowledge, and inspirer of the arts.

That his birthplace was among the most sacred sites in ancient Greece indicates the Greek reverence for knowledge and love of the arts.

In the fifth and sixth centuries BC, Delos held such an important role in the commerce of Greece that all dead bodies were removed, both purifying the island and promoting the island’s neutrality by removing the claim that any family or Greek city state might have inheritance through lineage on the island. Likewise, from this time forward, no woman was allowed to give birth.

A visit here today reveals a complex city of cisterns, temples, a theater, agora, and what was once the center of trade in the Aegean.

“Traveling light is not just about how much luggage you carry, but a certain approach to travel, to leaving expectations and the business of life at home, in order to be present and experience the gifts of a place.

To enjoy the Greek Islands, all one really needs is a love of swimming, sun, wind, and sea. That said, I love shopping in little local markets like this one in Naxos. I always bring an extra duffle bag that I fill up with local treats to share with family and friends when I come home. This year, after shopping at this market store in Naxos where everything is locally produced, I returned home with ten liters of olive oil and at least ten kilos of olives, feta, arseniko cheese, honey, jams, teas, and sweets.

I love bringing home this type of souvenir and I make an exception to my traveling light philosophy, especially for foods that can only be found in certain places. I recently shared some Naxian honey with friends and they commented that it was ‘the best honey they had ever had, in their entire lives.’ “

I still think it’s a good idea to pack light. And among the many advantages is returning home with a heart full of memories and, just perhaps, a suitcase full of local foods.”

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Marcus Aurelius is famous as the last wise emporer. He was a kind of ‘philosopher king’. He spent most of his reign containing wars at the confines of the empire while writing his own meditations on the stoic meaning of life.

The next time you visit Italy, consider picking up a copy of his ‘Meditations’ in preparation for your journey.

A remote barbecue by the sea shared with friends as the sun goes down… paradise to some, to others, another beautiful day in Greece.

After a morning hike where we gathered wild herbs and learnt about their therapeutic properties, we set off from Chalki, one of Naxos’ inland towns to cook our lunch with a local goat shepherd living in the hills.
In typical Greek fashion, after making our way up the steepest and slightly too-narrow-for-comfort driveway, we were greeted and welcomed into his home where his mother (who had taken up the roll of head chef since his wife was nine months pregnant) seated us around their dining room table and offered of spoon sweets. These are one of the treats of Greek hospitality, candied oranges, lemons, and local citrus; they are one of the many Greek expressions of ‘philoxenia’, a word we don’t have in English but one that means ‘love of strangers.’ A practice that dates back to the most ancient of times when travelers passing over land and sea depended on the kindness and gifts of strangers.
After resting from our hike, the goat shepherd’s mother called us back to our feet and instructed us in Greek, with a young woman in attendance to translate for us, on how to make Γεμιστά ‘yemista’ which just means ‘filled with’ or Greek stuffed tomatoes. Beginning with hollowing out our tomatoes, saving all the juices, and finely dicing to rice sized pieces all our summer vegetables we spent the next half hour following this family’s unique recipe and snacking on the mulberries hanging overhead before cooking our Γεμιστά in the wood fired stone oven.
While our food cooked I reflected that this little farmer, aside from inviting us into the stone home that his grandfather had built, was not just giving us a lesson on how to fill our bellies but a way of life. He showed his cheeses drying in a little room just a few feet from the stone oven, and not long later we were sitting under the trees as it almost started to rain, enjoying wine, food, good company, and philoxenia.

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The next time you visit Venice consider an afternoon trip to Murano and a workshop with a master glass blower at the glass cathedral. It’s one thing to see beautiful art, and it’s another thing to observe the poetry and process of seeing it made. Photo: .j.schmidt_crafts .zampiron

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

A reflection thanksgiving while traveling…

https://www.alitheatravel.com/blogs/a-travelers-thanksgiving

The quiet village of Burano is like the more modest, younger sibling of Venice. An easy Vaporetto ride from the Queen of the Adriatic, this colorful fishing village is said to have painted its houses brightly so that fishermen could see them on their way home.

Today, a visit here is a lovely way of spending the afternoon away from the cruise-ship visitors that can dominate La Serenissima, the most serene.

Tell us your favorite Italian city in the comments!

Climbing the dome of Brunelleschi is a wonderful experience. Though the staircase follows the space between the inside and outside walls and it's not for those who suffer from claustrophobia. The effect, when emerging from within the walls and glancing up a the scene of the Last Judgement by Vasari is dazzling.

Nothing better than antipasti and drinks to finish the day at Cinque Terre.

Florence, or Firenze as the Italians call it, is most often visited for the Renaissance, for Michelangelo's David or for a walk through the crowded Uffizi. But it is here, in Florence, that one glimpses the power of what it means to be human, to see how civilization, and in fact the whole trajectory of humanity, can be shaped by the work and aspirations of a few individuals. Dante is one such individual. He is portrayed here, holding a book, presumably his Divine Comedy. It's a work so complete that it describes man's relationship to the entire cosmos and his capacity to know, to choose, and to act.

What is your favorite piece of ancient art? If you could add one these three artifacts from Naxos, Greece, to your kitchen or living room what would it be?

The Octopus vase, piglet serving wine, or the classic thin amphora?

It's always interested to pause and ask questions that reveal the personalities of our human ancestors. If I lived two thousand five hundred years ago, how would you want to decorate your house? And with which of the owners of these three artifacts do you think you would most likely be friends?

It almost doesn't matter which part of the Greek coastline one visits; fishing is a part of life that dates back to the earliest human habitations along the coast. Remarkably, things haven't changed that much. Getting out on the water with local fishermen is a great way to experience the 'living past' and perhaps even learn some Greek while enjoying the sea breezes.

Numerous castles, like this one in Methoni, Greece, remind travelers of the might of the Venetian empire that once controlled the trade across the Mediterranean from the Byzantine and Ottoman empire into Europe.

Saint Benedict moved into a cave in the hills of Subiaco, leaving his fortune behind and embracing a life of material poverty and prayer.
This decision led one of the most important institutions of medieval Europe, Western monasticism, where Saint Benedict's rule instructed monks that 'it was not enough to be good, they also had to do good.'

The sanctuary at ancient Olympia is one of those places that's both so beautiful and richly interlaced with meaning that a visit there sometimes feels like walking into a fairytale. In Spring, when the redbuds are blooming it's almost impossible not to appreciate the Greek love of nature and one realizes that the Olympic games were more than a time of peace and athletic excellence, they were an illustration of the Greek aspiration towards the divine.

Eponymous with elegance, wealth, power, and beauty, Venice is the city that invites us to dream.

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The dome of Santa Maria del Fiore, Saint Mary of the Flowers, is a literary and literal crowning of the Florentine Renaissance. The ambitious story around its daring construction is inspiring. It’s a reminder, even an exhortation that to dream is to believe and to believe is to do.

Locals fishing on Galata Bridge in the Bosphorus of Istanbul. Some activities transcend all languages and cultures.
Famous as the historic capital of Constantinople and the only city nestled between the east and west, Istanbul is equally a wonderful place to shop, exchange ideas with locals, or simply to lounge in the cityscape.

Fast food doesn't have to mean industrially or commerically produced. At it's best it has the feeling of stepping back in time, asking for recommendations, and tasting the treats that only the locals know.

These steps at the exit of the Vatican Museums are among the most beautiful anywhere. Most often photographed from above as guests leave, it's easy to forget that these were once the main entrance. Next time you visit, look up as you leave. The staircase is a lovely and elegant reminder that there is no way of knowing ourselves without considering the past. Life without memory is unknowable. Or put another way, it's through memory that we discover ourselves. From this perspective, a visit to the Vatican Museums is not only an aesthetic experience with artifacts from the past, it is the discovery of who we are as human beings. It’s one of life’s beautiful paradoxes that in order to become we must also remember.

The perfect conclusion to a day of hikes around the mountain village of Dimitsana: an indoor picnic with our gracious hosts in their 700 year old family run hotel with a feast of local wine, meats, cheeses, and homemade spanakopita.

The region of Dimitsana is Arcadia. The unspoiled, mountainous terrain with its rustic villages, monasteries, and ancient sanctuaries of healing evokes such a romantic notion of life that in the 19th century the name Arcadia became synonymous with the ideals of nature, humanity, and romanticism itself. And it’s from this same region the constellations ‘Big and Little Bear’ take their names from the mythological account of the child of Zeus, the great hunter Arcas. In life he was separated from his mother by the jealousy of Hera who transformed her into a bear. But now they sit eternally together in the night skies, reigning above Arcadia.

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