giovedì, dicembre 08, 2016
Cadiz (Cadice)
giovedì, dicembre 08, 2016English Version Below - Domenica 4 dicembre partiamo da Siviglia alle 8 di mattina diretti a Cadice . Arriviamo alle 9,30 e cominciam...
Si ritiene sia stata la prima città fondata in Europa, che già solo per questo merita una visita.
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È in questa perla, in cui si incontrano l'Atlantico e il Mediterraneo, che nel 1812 si è firmata la prima costituzione spagnola.
We left from Seville on Sunday, December the 4th, at 8am, heading to Cadiz. We arrived at 9,30 and began with a small bus tour to have a general idea of the city and to have a picture of the geography and history of Cadiz.
They say it has been the first city founded in Europe, that in and of itself deserves a visit because of this.
During its long history, Cadiz has had highs and lows, interchanging periods where it played a big role in the politics and economics of the country, to periods of deep decline, where it only lived of memories of a glorious past.
It's in this pearl, where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean Sea, that in 1812 has been signed the first Spanish Constitution.
A detailed tour with a guide allowed us to know, together with a bit of history, culture and tradition of Cadiz, also some fun fact about the city. As the story of the Pan de Cadiz, aka Turron de Cadiz, typical "dessert" of the city, linked to a strong historic and identity-making component: when Napoleon and the French troops occupied Spain, Cadiz has been the only city to resist. Although being completely isolated from the rest of the continent, already captured by the French, it had the advantage to be able to reach colonies by water. From there, they could import several products, a great part of which didn't even exist in Spain until then, but they had to import even basic elements (like wheat) from other countries, making them really expensive and not accessible to everyone. So, what did they do? They substituted wheat for other elements, less expensive and more accessible, like almond flour. And by that came into the world the Pan de Cadiz, a kind of marzipan that was born, indeed, to substitute flour in the preparation of bread, and that describes very well the attitude to adapt and reinvent of the locals.
We finished the tour in two-three hours, enough to have a general idea of the city, to which you must add the necessary time to visit the Cathedral, linked to another history.
The outside of the Church has two colors, that denote the use of two different materials. Basically when they started to build the Cathedral, the King ordered to employ a stone extracted by the sea bottom: water, salt and sun-resistant, practically perfect to build in Cadiz. After the construction of the first part, he realized, though, that if they had kept on extracting the stone from the sea bottom, they would have stolen part of Cadiz's basis and territory. So they started to employ another material, not as resistant as the other, that's why today there is a net under the Cathedral's ceiling: to hold the fragments falling because of the continuous erosion.
After the visit to the Cathedral, we had some free time to eat: we took a little street full of restaurants and tapas bars, and we got our fill of tapas. Considering our rhythms and the Andalusian ones we only had the time to go back to get the bus to Seville.
What can I say? Clearly in a city you cannot see everything in half day, but you can have an idea, linked to the main monuments, to the streets, to the mood, to the air you breathe. That, then, are the things that affect the most the judgement on a city: how they live, how the locals relate to you, how you eat there, the feelings you have while walking around. And the thing I will carry more in my heart is the relaxed environment and mood, typical of the Southern European seaside city, but that, they say, makes it seem La Havana (so much that they had been filming 007-James Bond for three months passing it off as the Cuban capital city); the narrow streets with the white houses, the characteristic balconies, the orange trees, the squares with bars where you could spend hours, the traditional light brown of many historic (and not) buildings, and, indeed, the history and people's pride, perceivable in any corner and in any peculiar element of the city.
