Lecce

Nativity Scene in the Roman Forum, Lecce

Form & Function

Ancient Olive

Tempest

The Venetians held Corfu until Venice itself was conquered by Napoleon. Along with their other fortresses along the east coast of the Adriatic it allowed them to protect their shipping routes. The fortresses are dramatically situated and appear as impregnable as they usually were.

The Winged Lion of Venice in Corfu

Corfu

Travel between countries in the Balkans isn’t as straightforward as in Western Europe. There are a lot of different groups – ethnic, religious, political – that don’t really like each other very much, so not many people want to go from country to country. There are almost no railways. Ferry services are limited, especially in winter. The roads are often in poor condition and/or under construction. When counties are governed by organized crime things are often under construction and falling apart at the same time.

There is one bus a day from Dubrovnik, Croatia to Budva, Montenegro. It is a minivan and there is just one other passenger besides me. The Adriatic coast is beautiful and you would expect it to be wall to wall villas and beach homes, but outside the cities it’s mostly uninhabited. No one wants a beach house in what could be a war zone tomorrow.

Albania was closed to the outside world until 40 years ago. Almost immediately after the fall of communism much of the population lost money in pyramid schemes promoted by the government. That led to civil unrest and anarchy. The place is a mess, but somehow it keeps going on.

Hillary Clinton Statue, Sarande.

Bunker. There were 173,000 of these in Albania.

Bunker Protecting Albania from Tourists on Corfu

The bus ride from Trieste to Rijeka takes less than two hours, through the forest and a few villages in Slovenia, into Croatia and back down to the Adriatic. It was a cold and windy day in Rijeka, the streets were ripped up, and the communist era architecture wasn’t appealing, so after lunch I caught a bus to Zadar. It was a wild ride, the wind howling, the road narrow and twisty with a shear drop down to the raging sea.

Zadar has a wonderful walled old town on a peninsula, full of Roman ruins and medieval churches. It played a part in my favorite crusade, the fourth. The crusaders contracted with the Venetians to build a fleet of ships and take them to the Holy Land so they could drive the infidels from Jerusalem and reclaim it for Christianity. However the crusaders weren’t able to come up with all of the money to pay for the ships, so the Doge of Venice, Enrico Dandolo, proposed a deal: if the crusaders would join the Venetians in attacking the (christian) city of Zadar, with whom the Venetians were having problems, the remainder owed on the ships would be forgiven. The crusaders agreed. So Dandolo, who was in his nineties and blind, personally led the crusaders in the sack Zadar. The Pope excommunicated everyone involved. Then he changed his mind and only excommunicated the Venetians. And this is only the beginning of the story of the fourth crusade.

Foro Romano and St. Donatus

Molo and Islands

Roman Ruins in the Foundation of St. Donatus

Roman Column with Winged Lion

The days are cold, Sophia is busy with school, so I hopped on a train in Feltre and left the mountains. Trieste is my first stop on a trip to explore the shores of the Adriatic.

Piazza Unita d’Italia at Night

Teatro Romano di Trieste

Foro Romano di Trieste