Tinos has been the Lourdes of Greece ever since a prophecy was fulfilled and an icon was found on the island. This was considered a minor miracle so a palatial church was built especially to house the icon.
Most tourists who come to Tinos are Greek, and many of them come to crawl on their hands and knees, half a mile up a steep hill, from the port to the church as a plea to God. Admittedly, I’m a skeptic when it comes to such things.
I felt panicked for the crawlers when they had to cross the traffic circle right in front of the church. They’re were so low on the ground, I was afraid the cars wouldn’t see them so I hung around for a while to make sure no one was run over. Some of the crawlers had a person walking alongside them to make sure they weren’t run over, but this kind of just makes the walker look really lazy.
I crawled up the Sacred Steps in Rome once, but only because I was too ashamed to sashay up while everyone else was crawling. It was peer pressure, mostly from the sixty year-old sufferers. I did it as a sign of solidarity and because I didn’t want to be the only ugly American traipsing up in really cute kitten heels, but it hurt like hell. Really, I almost passed out it hurt so bad. Blame it on my exceptionally bony, knobby, skeletal knees. It was also excruciatingly slow because the sixty year-olds only moved up a step every five minutes or so. I don’t know how they did it.
Separate post coming on the Feast of the Assumption and how the whole process works.
© 2009 – 2011, Ithaka Bound. All rights reserved.
I hope Ms. Priscila arrived safely, Tom Ford’s and all. Keith is jumping up and down in his jungle gym, grinning at me like the Cheshire Cat. He has one tooth now, and another right behind it. I toasted the both of you this morning with Mimosa(s) at Le Pain Quotiden — I hope you guys do the same if you haven’t already. I miss you both so much and wish I could be there, but alas, motherhood (or more accurately, the DC Superior Court) calls. Ms. P, forgive me… I tried everything under the sun to upgrade your flight… I called United who told me to call Lufthanza, who told me to call Travelocity, who, with a very heavy Hindi accent told me that they couldn’t help me and I had to call Lufthanza, who just seemed annoyed that I called back.
My deepest apologies and sincere appreciation (again) for your help in NC… I *will* make it up to you… sorry it didn’t work out this time sister.