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The book's characteristics are the elegant, rich in historical and cultural content, insightful but witty and light in touch text and the beautiful photographs of landscape, seascape, buildings, monuments, ruins and works of art which are inextricably interwoven and mutually reinforcing;the impact on the reader is not merely additive but truly synergistic.
We travel with the author from the city of his birth, Venice aboard the Black Swan, a renovated 1899 yawl along trading routes of the Venetian Empire visiting the coastline and islands of the Adriatic, Ionian and Aegean seas with Istanbul (formerly Constantinople)the final destination. Some of these lands were former colonies of 'La Serenissima' and we witness its legacy in the form of medieval fortifications and buildings, the umbiquitous symbol of her strength, the winged lion, and her influences on art, architecture and culture. But the main focus is on the lands of indigenous people and their culture, history, art, buildings and monuments and contribution to the Mediterranean and world civilization.
We visit in succession Istria and Dalmatia and its fortified city port of Dubrovnic, its high walls and bastions commanding the blue sea before moving on to Montenegro and Albania. Then ensues an extensive tour of the island and mainland Greece comprising half of the chapters and size of the book. In the Ionian, we visit Corfu and the Ionian islands to which the Meteora in the mainland are added and offered an awe inspiring view of these precipitous rocks with monasteries perched on their top. The preceding chapter is introduced with possibly the most fascinating photograph in the book featuring the islet of Pontikonissi off Corfu surrounded by the sea with distant mountain ranges presenting Mediterranean at its beautiful best. The chapter on Dephi and Athens is aptly introduced as the cradle of civilization. Athens in particular had not simply a Mediterranean but a truly global impact. In a brief period during the second half of the 5th century BC in an era known as Pericles' golden age a true miracle took place. The Parthenon was built on the Acropolis exemplifying the ideal of classical beauty as an expression of measure and harmony, a similar gratifying evolution took place in the visual arts with the human body captured in movement and acquiring plasticity while this period witnessed also the birth of democracy, philosophy and theatre as an allegory of the human condition and social life. In Peloponnese we visit the theatre of Epidaurus with its impressive acoustics. And then follow visits in the Aegean of the Cyclades, Dodecanese and Crete where the dazzling Minoan civilization evolved in 2000 BC. The voyage ends in Istanbul with a magnificent photograph of the blue mosque and parts of the Topkapi and Dolmabache palaces. An omission in my judgment is the church of Hagia Sophia of which we are presented with only a fine mosaic of the Virgin and Child in the interior of the church.
The book is visually attractive, intellectually stimulating and captures the essence of the Mediterranean.
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