Rhodes and the new invaders: holiday trip to Greece

content:
photos:
Vote this travel review

A stone bridge linking East and West, Rhodes is the quintessence of the Middle Ages intact and living, always cross a thousand cultures, invaded by greedy people and greedy, home of one of the most prestigious and notorious medieval chivalry, the order of Knights of St. John in Jerusalem.
The arrival by sea is an emotion timeless stretch before us as canvas brown, the old medieval wall scrolls and protected by the Knights' s Order, a ring intact and impenetrable, I remember many lives lost, many battles won , of sieges and conquests not been completed.
Rhodes has always suffered, always. It suffers, in my opinion, today the hordes of tourists and imprudent greed of its new population that has converted the city center on a comercial bizarre metamorphosis in a giant bazaar where everything is bought and sold all ... Pity.
The rest is a luxury inpreziosito by glimpses of rare beauty in the eyes of a lover of the Middle Ages like me crazy walking slowly along the old dry moat between immense stone walls, towers glimpsed among lush vegetation, arches rock decorated with style and old Arab baths, Turkish mosques to Christian churches, synagogues open for the first time infidels in the eyes, spots' s Age of Middle-aged cruel and merciless, but political and religious and social basis of what we are today .
Rhodes has always wrong the fundamental alliance in history: first with Athens, did not go well, then with Rome, it was better, in fact, in 42 BC the furious Cassius defacement brutally stealing 3000 orpere d 'art direction Rome, then was besieged by the Persians, from selgiucchi, Byzantines, and pirates. Finally sold for a song by the Genoese to the Knights of St. John in 1309 will remain here 213 years, making the city an impregnable fortress, but not for the Turkish Ottoman Soleimano who took it in 1522 in possession after a tragic and debilitating siege.
The Turks did not allow to until just after World War II, after an interregnum of us Italians, to pass into the hands of DEFINITIVELY neogoverno greek.
It really surprised that almost 500 years of turkish domain have not left many signs, some mosque, a Christian church destroyed, other churches turned into stables, baths, etc. but the city is a faithful copy of that chivalry. Bellissima
Rhodes, that the myth created by Zeus to Apollo's son who had not been assigned yet no land was home to one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Colossus of Rhodes, myth or reality: er, it is not known, remains doubt of its existence, but today many GIUGE that these walls do not care about any of this, not even remembered his name, of the 2,000 Jews gathered and sent to Auschwitz, the Knights who took refuge fled from the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem , the majestic Ippoton street, the street where the knights met refreshment speaking the same language in their pensions, "language" .. not at all, who cares, 's important is to make the group follow a guide gasping and croaking, which with its red umbrella to follow her screams, squeezing between the human throng, trying to hurry to take the money and send sti tourists back home, on boats or in the hotel, or worse toward the souvenir shops are waiting for the tourist as the spider her fly ....
Despite everything, the city and the island deserve a vacation, they deserve it because here was made part of the history of the glorious and inglorious era of Crusades here in this aera of the world at the dawn of Christianity, has made the history of ancient Greece , emperor of Byzantine, the holy crusade of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey today, Greece today.
Rhodes, despite the new invaders are perhaps the worst seen in these walls, what really gives the traveler has come to seek here, in the island of Apollo.
Andrea