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We are in the beautifully restored palace, Palacios de Pujadas hotel, in the lovely town of Viana. Its historical centre is little changed since medieval pilgrims plodded through it's ancient streets. The attached picture is the 13th century church- Iglesia de Santa Maria. In front of the doorway is the tomb of the notorious Cesare Borgia.
And now a little history lesson:
Mr. Borgia was the illegitimate son of Rodrigo Borgia, who was elected Pope Alexander VI in 1492. Cesare was appointed commander of the Papal armies & patronized both Leonardo de Vinci, who acted as his military architect, and Machiavelli. When Pope Alexander VI died, his successor banished poor Cesare to Spain where he was killed defending Viana in the siege of 1507. It has been suggested that Borgia's strong countenance may have been used by artists of the period, such as Leonardo, to model the popular image of Jesus Christ. And thus ends your history lesson for today. Class dismissed!
Rich: My observations are more materialistic. What a surprise! We are in a very small and historic town and it is a contrast to the cities.
We are sitting here in a small town having a vino tinto at 6:30 and the earliest any restaurant opens for dinner is 8:30. It seems much of the business does not change old habits for peregrinos The bars are quite dirty, tables are left uncleared and uninviting for hours, service is desultory at best and our speaking Spanish, which Lynn is picking up nicely, confers no advantage. Many stores stock a narrow range of food and send you right across the street to get what is missing. In short, our experience so far is that many businesses in the smaller places seem to not value or know how to profit from, and seem even resentful of peregrinos. There are certainly some wonderful exceptions to this. I can't help but wonder if some of these businesses have any idea the money they are leaving on the table. So much for my old business eye.
I feel the larger cities have retained their history and also adapted to high service expectations. And the people seem to be very helpful and friendly.
Moral for us is to try to adjust our attitudes to their way of life.
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Susan Welsh Am really enjoying following your journey through your eyes and perspectives. Susan