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¡Turistas!

"They're here, those numbskull wretches who plague us every day in their thousands and their tens of thousands!

"And yet they only want to experience what we’ve got, drawn to it by our own stories. How right Guilhelmus Rogerius was, who, it is said, never missed a good opportunity to shut up!

"What's to be done? All that’s left to our people now is bilking and overcharging these "tourists," who sweep all before them, but can never know the sweetness of life that you and I, cara mia, foolishly took for granted, prima della rivoluzione."—Athaulf, king of the Visigoths, to his princess bride Galla Placidia, ca. 412–13 CE


Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta, Ataúlfo (1858), Museo del Prado, Madrid


The Visigothic leader Athaulf, or Adolf, who hoped to restore Western civilization, was murdered in Barcelona in 415 CE while taking a dip. Airbnb agents had reportedly been seen in the vicinity. Paulus Orosius, Historiarum adversus paganos libri VII / Seven Books of Histories against the Pagans.


 
 
 

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Photo by Peter Dreyer

 Cyclops by Christos Saccopoulos, used by kind permission of the sculptor.

Copyright © 2023 - by Peter Dreyer

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