Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Wednesday 25 september 2019
Monument-filled, tourist-empty Extremadura is a Spanish gem

By GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO holding an escutcheon,
Associated Press and a puffy-cheeked sun
CACERES, Spain (AP) — The itself. Fortified by wild boar
flamenco strains were so tapas and shots of local
haunting I asked the quin- bellota liquor — made from
tet of 20-somethings play- the same acorns eaten by
ing guitars on the doorstep pigs that end up as Iberia’s
of a massive, whitewashed best hams — I kept wander-
centuries-old church if I ing into the night. My steps
could listen for a spell. and those flamenco melo-
“Sure. Want a sip?” one dies were the only sounds in
replied, offering the litrona floodlit cobblestone alleys.
— a quarter-gallon bottle SPIRITUAL ESCAPE
of beer — they were shar- The enormous swirling rose
ing. Then they went back window of the Royal Mon-
to jamming, their notes astery of Guadalupe tow-
echoing up the steep, nar- ers over this tiny, remote
row lane in one of the most mountain village where
monument-filled, tourist- pilgrims have come for
empty cities in the Iberian seven centuries to honor
peninsula. the Virgin Mary. Columbus
Caceres is a highlight of was among them and the
Extremadura, a Span- conquistadores brought
ish region of vast sun- the devotion to Latin Amer-
parched landscapes and ica, where the Virgen de
untouched historical jewels This October 26, 2017 photo shows the two-thousand-year-old Temple of Diana, one of the best Guadalupe remains widely
exactly halfway between preserved of the Roman monuments that fill Merida, Spain. revered. The fortress-like
the ever-more-crowded Associated Press complex is filled with whim-
capitals of Madrid and Lis- rida with public and private a crown of rays exactly like Places to visit include the sical decorations, such as
bon, Portugal. showpieces. Centuries lat- the Statue of Liberty. Santa Maria cathedral, full the cloister shrine and tur-
I spent a weekend there er, many of the conquis- There is a Circus Maximus of conquistador tombs, rets covered in green and
last October exploring Ro- tadores that led Spain’s so gigantic you can imag- around the corner from the white tiles, and treasures,
man ruins, climbing up me- dominion in the Americas ine thousands of specta- Toledo-Moctezuma pal- including jewel-encrusted
dieval towers and scarfing came from this region (and tors roaring as chariots ace built by a mixed local- reliquaries and paintings by
down plates of the famed returned to fill it with pal- sped down the straight. But Aztec family, and the Casa Zurbaran.
local ham without seeing aces). Just across the two- what took my breath away de las Veletas museum, I had my last dinner in Ex-
one tour group. millennia-old, half-mile river was the Roman Theater, its with an arch-lined Arabic tremadura — wild mush-
I traveled mostly on com- bridge, stand a couple of stage wall decorated with aljibe (cistern). rooms, venison stew and
fortable public buses that monuments dedicated to exquisitely detailed floral But I found it hard to stop homemade custard — in
rolled through olive and Merida by Rome and by its elements and veined mar- making laps up and down the little square facing the
oak tree-studded hills, past namesake city in Yucatan, ble columns that glowed the entire town, follow- main monastery entrance,
fortified towns and palm- Mexico. Next to the monu- blue in the afternoon sun. ing the sun as it marched where a few locals chatted
fringed farms, stopping to ments, in a fortress built In the pedestrianized streets across stern yet sumptu- and water trickled from a
pick up schoolchildren re- by a ninth-century emir, I of the workaday down- ous facades, revealing medieval fountain.
turning home and elderly descended the steps of a town, I found the Augustus- sculpted stone details like The bells tolled. Then, un-
couples going to market. water cistern decorated era Temple of Diana, its grimacing gargoyles, lions broken silence.q
Every stop appealed — es- with Roman and Visigoth huge colonnade framing
pecially Trujillo with its cas- marble panels and carv- a porticoed Renaissance
tle — but I focused on three ings of leaves and grapes. palace — two empires liter-
must-sees: Merida, Cace- Just past the bright-red ally fused.
res and Guadalupe. bullfighting arena, in the GOLD TREASURE
IMPERIAL POWER Roman Casa del Mitreo, I Caceres’ strawberry-gold
This small city played a marveled at the bright tur- walled monumental core
role in two of the world’s quoise sea depicted in a hugs a hilltop, with hardly
great empires, Rome’s and 2,000-year-old floor mosaic a single modern element
Spain’s. As their provincial representing the cosmos, among slender medieval
capital, Romans filled Me- including a sun figure with towers and Renaissance
palaces covered in coats
of arms. It looks perfect
enough for a movie set, but
still feels real — I watched
a nun in a white habit and
a briefcase hurry under a
stone arch, not a selfie stick
in sight. In Plaza de San Ma-
teo, where a crested tower
and a bell tower jostle for
height, I chatted about U.S.
presidential politics through
This Oct. 27, 2017 photo shows the Royal Monastery of Guadalupe a convent turnstile with the This Oct. 27, 2017 photo shows the escutcheon on the Casa del
towering over the tiny mountain hamlet of Guadalupe in Spain’s Kenyan sister selling me al- Sol, a 16th-century palace in Caceres, a monument-filled hilltop
remote Extremadura region. mond cookies. town in Spain’s Extremadura.
Associated Press Associated Press