Des chiens andalous

Green, green Andalucia. Defying all stereotypes. And booming, thriving, Euro-financed, and worlds away from Italy's Mezzogiorno. The signs of prosperity are everywhere, panels with thanks to the EU structural funds ( and here kudos to Sciences Po for my EU oriented semester, from whereI got out with so much about this EU stuff, including structural funds...) , highways and bridges, cultural advancements, very well dressed and happy Andalusians on the streets, with smallish, catlike dogs with suspicious glances. The question is why cannot Mezzogiorno do the same... But this is another story.

Prosperity. It came back to Andalucia, the old haven of sophistication and advancement in Muslim times. To the weird feeling of seeing the Mezquita turned into a Cathedral or the Alhambra in Granada, some others are added- the Inquisition led from Cordoba or the Capilla Real de Granada, where Isabella de Castella, Fernando de Aragon, Juana la Loca and Felipe el Hermoso, powerful figures that always fascinated me, are buried. A mile away from the Alhambra, in a symbolic gesture, making maybe the statement that Spain means the Reconquista.
To the old, Islamic times quarters Cordoba adds fancy neoclassical buildings and a pan Mediterranean charm dubbed with classiness, while Granada, much smaller, has paradoxically the feeling of a great, bustling city, with busy boulevards and crazy nightlife.

... To be continued