Palamidi

Acro Nauplion and the old town with Bourtzi in the background from Palamidi

Students in Leonides' Bastion

Phil emerging from one of the many dark tunnels you can explore

Part of the new city and the harbor from the Epaminondas Bastion

I did not take a lot of pictures this year, but I did get to explore some area that I had not been to before. This site is one of my favorites because it rewards exploration. There is a solitary confinement cell which held Kolokotrones, the Independence-era war hero. There is a tunnel from one room to another, a cistern accessible by a flight if dark steps, and several other hidden places that are open but not lit or otherwise curated. There are sheer cliffs with no ropes and views on all directions.  There are three independent fortresses encircled by a common set of fortifications. The Venetians, Turks and Greeks all thought it was impregnable, lost only through the work of a traitor. We would never allow this kind of freedom in any site in the US. But it is what I always long for in a castle...the chance to experience it and uncover its secrets rather than be shown them from the other side of a velvet rope. It is hard to figure out how best to show this to students, though.  If we don't show or tell them, they inevitably miss something, but if we do, they don't have the same sense of discovery and intimacy as we do.