The Acropolis is quite a wonder – and it’s a wonder that they continue to allow people to visit it the way they do. If I can take a moment to tell a brief story about ancient spots here in the states versus Greece – this is as good a time as any. About 5 years ago Catherine (my wife) and I went to the Williamsburg area (Virginia not New York) because we were given a free vacation. We brought along our good friends Jan and James and the four of us were going to have a great time. The fact is we did have a good time, however Williamsburg had nothing to do with our good time – just spending time with friends and laughing about the same things made this weekend memorable.
O.K., here’s the story – we deiced to go to Jamestown (the first permanent English settlement in the new world) and see what the past was like. We pay the overpriced $15 admission and soon we are getting toured around “Jamestown”. Notice I have just thrown up the “quotation fingers” in referring to “Jamestown” because we were told during the tour that the REAL “Jamestown” was a few miles further down the road. It was like that scene from the movie “A Christmas Story” where little Ralphie has been waiting for his secret decoder ring all winter and when he finally gets it – it turns out to be a commercial for Ovaltine. All four of us stopped in our tracks when we were told the real “Jamestown” was a few miles down the road. To make matters worse the real “Jamestown” was free as opposed to this fake English and Indians sideshow.
Well the Acropolis is the complete opposite of that.
The Acropolis and surrounding buildings have been under repair basically since the dawn of time, but with the olympics recently held in Athens the whole city got a bit cleaned up and the Acropolis was just sparkling since I last saw it (14 years ago). The basic facts about visiting The Acropolis is this:
1. Buy a ticket
2. Go pretty much anywhere you want – don’t touch anything roped off
3. The Acropolis Museum is free – enjoy it.
But the great thing about visiting the acropolis is the freedom to just walk around it and soak it all in. You can buy a guidebook just about anywhere and most of your travel guides have enough on the Acropolis to allow you to just use that. One thing I do like about The Acropolis is how they have restored the amphitheaters and use them for modern events as well. Elvis Costello was playing there a few nights after we left.
The Acropolis Study Center is nearing completion – its about 2 blocks from the Acropolis and looks to be a world class facility. Hopefully I’ll be back next year and will give you a run down then – but for now it’s just a nice building.
The Archeological Museum
The AM is your first semester of art history come to life. There is really no other way to describe it. Just like the Acropolis, there are really minimal barriers between you and the objects – I love that, but wonder what we are doing long term to some of these treasures.
The AM doesn’t spend a lot of time recontextualizing things for you, it shows them and allows you to soak them in and move on at your own pace. I’ll admit, I like that about some museums – they lighten up the educational element and allow those with previous knowledge to go at the speed they wish – without having to constantly bump into the tour group.
I know in Rome most every outdoor piece you see is a reproduction. I wonder if any of the sculpture pieces there are as well.
I know that the porch of the Caryatids has been retrofitted with copies – this is all due to the bad air climate of Athens (which is really a crappy city – but the rest of that country is amazing). Inside the museums, the sculptures are real and things that are outside for the most part (as far as I can tell) are real.
I feel pretty strong about that (real versus copies) because the few places where I saw copies, they were very upfront about it.