 | A day just roman around.
Merida 8.5 Tuesday.
We had never heard of Merida before planning for this route but learning it was the best preserved roman town outside Italy we planned on a rest day.
The ticket we bought yesterday comes with a free guide and entrance to a variety of roman sites as well as the moorish Alcazar. Prime of these were the Theatre (where Pedro the hospitalero in Torremejia is an actor during the summer season (when few are stupid enough to walk the Via de la Plata)) a fantastically well restored roman theatre with adjacent amphitheatre. The Museum of Roman art housing all the bits of stone from various sites around town (all those not valuable enough to be nicked by Madrid) plus a lot more in a very well presented modern gallery. And a galaxy of lesser sites some still being excavated and preserved. The city has World Heritage Site status and hopefully this will keep it and help it develope further as a site of Roman Empire. It is an amazing place where the modern rubs against the ancient (aparently without blisters). Talking of which Betsy has bought new socks her Rohans developed holes. If you see a large lump of stone on its side, round here, chances are its a roman something.
After lunch in the appropriately named Via Flavia where we also had breakfast, just up from the Alczar, we go over the hill on our route out of own tomorrow to visit the Milagros Viaduct. This great construction supplied the town with water in Roman times from the Prospina reservoir which we should pass by tomorrow 7km out of town. It is now a high rise for stork families.
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