Crete: the endless island
Piero: so… here we are. Is your suitcase packed?
Angela: packed. And, as always, completely full. But tell me something: where are we going this time?
Piero: I'll tell you in three words: myth, sea, and thousands of years of history.
Angela: I guess we're going back to your beloved Greece, but could you be a little more specific?
Piero: I'll give you a few more unmistakable clues: the Labyrinth, King Minos, and the Minotaur...
Angela: stop right there! I know where we're going: Crete!
Piero: that's right: Crete, the island where Zeus was born, where a king built a Labyrinth to hide a monster. A place where bulls fly, frescoes tell stories, and the ruins are anything but silent.
Angela: I'm a little worried... How many kilometres are you planning to make me walk this time? You do know the island is more than 250 km (155 miles) long, right? And that it takes about five hours by car to drive from one end to the other?
Piero: I know, don't worry. And I also know that one week won't even be enough to scratch the surface. Crete is a continent disguised as an island. It's layers of history, breathtaking nature, and a living culture. Every corner deserves a long stop. Every ruin deserves a guide. Every beach deserves at least one sunset.
Angela: so, what you're really saying is that we've given ourselves an incredible gift... but an incomplete one.
Piero: in a way, yes. It simply means we'll have to come back to Crete. For now, we'll focus on one part of the island. We'll explore Minoan palaces and ancient Roman cities, walk among frescoes, columns, pottery, olive trees, and the deep blue sea. It will be a journey through time... and, in some ways, a journey within ourselves.
Angela: and we'll tell its story step by step, through both words and images. Because Crete cannot truly be explained... it can only be experienced.
A history spanning millennia
Hai ragione. D'ora in poi manterrò esattamente il tuo stile: dopo "Piero:" e "Angela:" la frase inizierà con la minuscola, salvo quando la grammatica richiede la maiuscola (nomi propri, inizio di un titolo, ecc.).
Mi era sfuggita questa tua regola consolidata. Ecco il testo corretto:
Piero: even before landing, as always, I buried myself in books. And you know what? The more you study Crete, the more you get lost.
Angela: that doesn't surprise me. It's an island that has witnessed it all: the dawn of European civilization, great empires, and myths that still shape our imagination today.
Piero: it all begins in the Neolithic, more than 8,000 years ago. People were already living here in villages built of rough stone, cultivating the land, and producing pottery decorated with geometric patterns. Then, around 3000 BC, everything changed: the Minoan civilization was born.
Angela: the first advanced civilization in Europe. And perhaps the most mysterious.
Piero: no massive city walls, no monumental weapons—only beauty. Magnificent, complex architecture, refined art, and a religion deeply connected to nature, centred largely around female deities. At the heart of it all were the great palaces: Knossos, Phaistos, Malia, Zakros... more than palaces, they were true labyrinthine cities.
Angela: and this is exactly where the myth of the Labyrinth was born. Do you know where that word comes from?
Piero: from the word labrys, the double-headed axe, a sacred Minoan symbol. It appeared in rituals, was carved into walls, and could be found throughout the palaces. Originally, the word labyrinthos referred to the palace where the sacred axe was kept. Later, it became synonymous with a place so intricate that finding the way out seemed impossible. This is where architecture and myth merge: endless corridors, staircases, and overlapping rooms.
Angela: the most famous labyrinth, of course, is the one where King Minos imprisoned the Minotaur, the creature that was half man and half bull. It was built by the brilliant architect Daedalus, who was later imprisoned there himself and escaped with his son Icarus, flying on wings made of wax. But Icarus flew too close to the sun...
Piero: ...and fell into the sea. All of this began here. But that's not all. According to mythology, Zeus himself was born in Crete. He was brought into the world in a cave on Mount Dikti, where Rhea hid to protect him from Cronus, the father who devoured his own children.
Angela: the Curetes, armed with shields and swords, clashed their weapons together to drown out the baby's cries and deceive Cronus. And from that cave, the future king of Olympus rose to the heavens.
Piero: in short, Crete is not just history. It is pure mythology. It is the place where the line between reality and legend disappears. But the story doesn't end there. After the Minoans came the Mycenaeans, who introduced Linear B, the writing system that we can finally read, unlike the earlier Linear A. The palaces were burned, some rebuilt, and eventually abandoned. It marked the end of an era.
Angela: of course, we're not entirely sure that's what happened. Another theory suggests that the Minoan civilization was devastated by the massive volcanic eruption on nearby Santorini, followed by a powerful tsunami. Whatever the cause, it marked the beginning of a new age. First came the Dorians, then the Greeks. After Knossos and Phaistos, Gortyna became the island's leading city, and the Romans chose it as the capital of Crete. Here, history is literally carved in stone: this is where the Code of Gortyn, Europe's earliest great written law code, was inscribed.
Piero: then came the Byzantines, who built churches and monasteries. The Arabs arrived in the 9th century, transforming Heraklion into a thriving trading centre. In the 13th century, the Venetians strengthened the ports, built castles, and designed elegant cities. Then, in the 17th century, the Ottomans arrived, bringing mosques, covered markets, and minarets. Every civilization added another layer to this already extraordinary cultural landscape.
Angela: even in the 20th century, Crete experienced wars, uprisings, and revolutions. It officially became part of Greece only in 1913. Yet its spirit has always remained free... and just as stubborn as it is creative.
Piero: and, above all, layered. Walking through Crete means crossing two thousand years of history in just two hundred metres. It means reading frescoes and graffiti, listening to silence and to voices from the past. This is an island where the stones don't simply lie still... they speak.
Angela: and we're here to listen to every one of them—or at least to try. Here's what we'll be exploring:
